Some four to five thousand years ago, settlements to the southwest of Beijing were thriving on basic agriculture and animal husbandry. During the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), the Marquis of Yan annexed the territory of Ji, made the city of Ji his new capital. The approximate location was north of Guang'anmen Gate in present-day Beijing near the White Cloud Temple.

Early in the third century B.C., the first Emperor of Qin set about conquering six states and unifying China. The city of Ji was named administrative center of Guangyang Commandery, one of 36 prefectures in China's first feudal empire.

For 10 centuries, through to the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Ji remained a strategic trading and military center and the object of frequent power struggles.

When the Tang collapsed , the Qidans (Khitans) occupied Ji and made it their second capital. They call the city Naijing (Southern Capital) or Yanjing. In the early 12th century, the Nuzhen (Jurchen) conquered the Liao and established the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). The rebuilding of the new city began in 1151 with expansion to the east, west and south. The city also had its new name - Zhongdu.

Mongol armies occupied Zhongdu in 1215. At this time, the city of Kaiping (in present-day Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) served as the principal Mongol capital , while Yanjing was given provincial status. It was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan formally adopted the new dynasty's name-Yuan- and made Yanjing the capital city. Kublai Khan also gave the city a new name of Dadu or Great Capital.

On August 2, 1368, Ming troops seized Dadu and renamed it Beiping (Northern Peace). In 1368 the founder of the Ming Dynasty shifted the capital to Nanjing, or "Southern Capital". Nanjing remained the capital until 1420, when a succeeding Ming emperor decreed that the capital should return to its previous site in the north and gave the city its current name, which means Northern Capital. The city developed and grew, and the basis for its current design and layout was implemented during this time.

Extensive reconstruction work was carried out in Beijing during the first years of the Ming Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing (1644-1911), did the city emerge as an architectural masterpiece fit to serve as the capital of the Chinese empire. A north-south axis bisects the city with the Imperial Palace in the middle. In the Yuan , this palace was known as Danei (The Great Within).

In the Ming, it was renamed the Forbidden City, and more recently it has come to be called the Palace Museum. Designed with thousands of halls and gates arranged symmetrically around a north-south axis, its dimensions and luxuriance are a fitting symbol of the power and greatness of traditional China.

Following the overthrow of the Qing and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, Beijing remained the political center of China until 1928.

The Nationalist Party moved the capital to Nanjing and renamed Beijing to Beiping, the city's former name under the early Ming dynasty. During World War II the city was occupied by the Japanese invaders from 1937 to 1945.

In 1949, with the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the city again became the capital and resumed its own name.

The city has changed totally since then. It has expanded from its old confines within the nine gates of the Inner City wall to the seven outer gates and out into the suburbs. Beijing now covers an area of about 750 square kilometers, which includes a dozen new living districts built on the outskirts of town. New buildings like the International Post Office and Bank of China have been built along the Second Ring Road, the former line of the Inner City wall.

Future development in Beijing will continue to preserve the symmetry of the old city layout while integrating modern architectural design into the overall plan.

Tienanmen Square