How did Beijing come into being?
According to the historical records and the research by historians and geologists，the area around Beijing was a gulf two or three million years ag0．Geographical distribution of Beij ing is like this：Beij ing was called“Beijing Gulf”because it is semi—enclosed by the Taihang Mountains to the west and the Yanshan Mountains to the north，with the Bohai Bay to its east and facing the Great Hebei Plain to the south．Millions of years later，the enormous amounts of mud carried by the melting ice and snow in spring and the heavy rains in summer silt down from the mountain valleys into the gulf，then the gulf was transformed into an alluvial plain known as the Beijing Sub-plain today．The surrounding mountains offered a
protection screen from the strong northern winds．Wet air blew from the sea to the east．A vast plain stretched out tO the south and with the rivers and streams length and breadth．The different landforms and a temperate climate with plentiful rainfall made this SHb-plain a suitable environment for human to settle down．Then it became the pivot connected with northeast，northwest and the central plains．It was also the communication and transportation center of the north and south in China．Here was the cradle of the human settlement where our origin
ancestor-Peking Man was bred，the earliest inhabitants of the Beijing Sub-plain．
Peking Man
Peking Man，or Peking ape-man，a primitive caveman lived some 500，000 to 700。000 years ago at Dragon Bone Hill by the Town of Zhoukoudian， about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Beijing(Dragon Bone Hill noted for its large quantities of Chinese medicine：dragon bone)．The first completed skull of Peking Man was discovered in December 1 929 by Pei Wenzhong，a well-known Chinese paleoanthropologist．The fossils of the Upper Cave Man were found in the cave above the Peking Man．They lived about 1 8,000 years ago．They were much nearer to the modern man．They could sew pieces ot an。mal
hides int0 a covering and the primitive women had already developed the sense of beauty by making necklaces with seashells’stone and animal teeth． Furthermore’ they already showed their appreciation of red color in decorating their caves·
Appearance of the Beijing City
In about one or two thousand years BC’ some small settlements began to appear on the Beijing Sub-plain· 0ne of．Them was located around the present Guanganmen site(Gate of Broad Peace)in southwestern Beijing·As time went on Guanganmen settlement became a center for north and south communications． With the development of production and the
increase in commerce，it grew into a prosperous market town ln the Zhou Dynasty， and then it was called City of “Ji” or “Jicheng’’．That was probably the earliest appearance of Beijing.But there was no detailed record to prove the year of the city· So the arguments on the topic for the exact founding year of the city of “Ji” among the historians lasted for many years. But Later, according to the historical records，the historian and protessor
Mr．Zhao Guangxian got the result：The year when King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty。verthrew the Shang Dynasty(16th-llth century BC)and enfeoffed prince Shao to the region of Yan, is the year when the city appeared． So later， according to the Tour Guiding in Beijing calendar， records， astronomical phenomena and the Halle Comet．the year of 1045BC is considered as the appearance year of Beijing city．In 1995 a grand celebration was held in Beijing to commemorate the Beijing city’s 3，040th anniversary．Today(the year of 2003) is the 3，048th anniversary of Beijing·
Different Dynasties in Beijing
Beijing was first recorded as the city of“Ji’’or“Jicheng”．Later in the l l th century BC，the Kingdom of Yan established its caDital at Ji，and named it Yanjing．Jicheng served as the cadital 0f Yan for eight to nine hundred years and it was an important metropolis in north China．In 221 BC，during the Qin Dynasty，Qin Shihuang，the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty’
defeated 0ther six kingdoms and established a unified centralized state with its capital in Xianyang(in present Shaanxi)．The state of Yan ceased to exist and Jicheng became an ordinary prefectural town．But it was still regarded as a major trading center and a place of strategic importance． But it was in no Dosition to compare with the capital cities of Xianyang，Changan
of the Han，Sui and Tang dynasties．So Ji just remained as another northern town．In the Sui Dynasty，it was named“Zhuo Jun”．During the Tang Dynasty,Jicheng was renamed “Youzhou”with its capital in Changan(Xi’an today)．
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