Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
east. The North China Plain is a large stretch of flat, fertile land, uninterrupted by moun-
tains or rivers, and so, in ancient times, it made a perfect environment for communities
to thrive and interact. The terrain made for quick and easy horseback movement, farming
yielded bumper crops, and communication was relatively unimpeded. This also meant that
languages within these areas remained relatively similar—unlike, for example, the Shang-
hainese or Cantonese dialects farther south in the country. Its relative flatness, however,
made it vulnerable to intruders from the northern steppes, and so came the Great Wall.
Beijing's center sits at just 44 meters (146 feet) above sea level, and its northwestern
corner is only 10 meters (33 feet) higher than its southeastern corner. The northern and
western limits are, however, bounded by mountain ranges that rise to an average of
1,000-1,500 meters (3,281-4,921 feet) in height. Beijing's highest mountain, Ling Shan,
reaches up to 2,303 meters (7,556 feet). On a clear day, the Western Mountains (part of
the Taihang range, which extends into Beijing from Hebei) are surprisingly visible. Have
a drink at the top of Park Hyatt or the Shangri-La's Summit Wing in Guomao and you'll
enjoy a full view of them. University students up in Haidian have them as a constant back-
drop.
Beijing is not part of a province but is a municipality directly governed by the national
government. In China, there are three other such cities—Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing.
Beijing is completely surrounded by Hebei province, except for Tianjin, which sits at its
southeastern corner. The actual urban area of Beijing, which covers approximately 1,000
square kilometers (about 386 square miles), is concentrated down in the southern central
part of the municipality.
This urban area is largely circumscribed by a set of five ring roads, numbered two to six
(the absent First Ring Road is a bygone of the 1920s). For the large part, life goes on inside
the Fifth Ring Road, which runs for 98 kilometers (61 miles), sits at an average distance of
about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city center, and encompasses just five of the districts.
The remaining areas beyond this point are dramatically less populated and predominantly
rural—although this is rapidly altering with farmlands seized for construction and flashy
golf courses for the wealthy.
To help with the administration of the city, Beijing is broken up into 14 districts and two
counties. Until fairly recently, there were 16 districts, but in July 2010, the government
merged the four innermost districts into two—Chongwen district was absorbed into its lar-
ger, more powerful northern neighbor, Dongcheng district, and, likewise, Xuanwu district
