Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The first actual settlements in and around Beijing go back almost as far, to the end of the
Paleolithicera
; evidence of dozens of
Neolithic
settlements, including burial sites, has also
been discovered across the city and its environs.
While the city's pre-imperial history is shrouded in myth and legend, the first recorded event
occurred in the eleventh century BC, when the
Zhoudynasty
conquered the Shang, and went
on to use Beijing as a regional capital. Evidence suggests that this base city-state, named Ji
after one particular Zhou leader, was near Guang'anmen, not too far at all from the centre
of modern Beijing. Around 690 BC, during what is now known as the
Spring and Autumn
Period
, Ji was absorbed by the competing Yan state (eleventh century to 222 BC), based just
to the south, and it was during the last decades of Yan's existence that the city received its
first protective walls. Far greater fortifications, though still earthen in nature, were built dur-
ing the
Qin dynasty
(221-207 BC); Beijing was at this time a mere regional base, with the
imperial capital way out west in Xi'an. It remained relatively unimportant for half a millen-
nium until the Former Yan, one of the
Sixteen Kingdoms
which jostled for power during -
and after - the latter part of the
Jin dynasty
(265-420 AD), moved their capital here in 352;
this only lasted for five years, but the Northern Wei restored Beijing as capital four decades
later. This on-off arrangement became a pattern - increasing in importance after being con-
nected to Shanghai by the
GrandCanal
during the Sui dynasty (581-618), Beijing served as
an occasional regional capital during the Tang (618-907), Five dynasties (907-960) and Liao
(907-1125) periods.
The
Liao dynasty
saw the Khitan, a nomadic barbarian tribe from the northern grasslands,
erect another major series of city walls, and make full use of the Grand Canal as a means of
trade. The city walls could not prevent the Khitan being overthrown by the Southern Song,
who razed Beijing but failed to fully defeat the Liao. This was eventually accomplished with
the aid of the Jurchen, another nomadic group, who made Beijing capital of the Jurchen or
(second)
Jin dynasty
(1125-1234) in 1153. The city's walls were then expanded as the pop-
ulation swelled to half a million, and it became one of the first places in the world in which
paper currency was used.
