In the s, the city began to expand beyond the old walled city and its surrounding neighborhoods, with heavy industries in the west and residential neighborhoods in the north. Many areas of the Beijing city wall were torn down in the s to make way for the construction of the Beijing Subway and the 2nd Ring Road.
During the Cultural Revolution from to , the Red Guard movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of the first purges. By the autumn of , all city schools were shut down and over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in Beijing for eight rallies in Tian'anmen Square with Mao. In December , the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in Beijing under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping reversed the verdicts against victims of the Cultural Revolution and instituted the "policy of reform and opening up. Since the early s, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly with the completion of the 2nd Ring Road in and the subsequent addition of the 3rd , 4th , 5th and 6th Ring Roads.
Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular North China Plain , which opens to the south and east of the city.
Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing County and Huairou District , are dominated by the Jundu Mountains , while the western part is framed by Xishan or the Western Hills. The Great Wall of China across the northern part of Beijing Municipality was built on the rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes.
Major rivers flowing through the municipality, including the Chaobai , Yongding , Juma , are all tributaries in the Hai River system, and flow in a southeasterly direction. The Miyun Reservoir, on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is the largest reservoir within the municipality. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the Grand Canal to Hangzhou , which was built over 1, years ago as a transportation route, and the South—North Water Transfer Project , constructed in the past decade to bring water from the Yangtze River basin. The city spreads out in concentric ring roads. The Second Ring Road traces the old city walls and the Sixth Ring Road connects satellite towns in the surrounding suburbs.
Tian'anmen and Tian'anmen Square are at the center of Beijing, directly to the south of the Forbidden City , the former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is Zhongnanhai , the residence of China's current leaders. Chang'an Avenue , which cuts between Tiananmen and the Square, forms the city's main east—west axis.
Three styles of architecture are predominant in urban Beijing. First, there is the traditional architecture of imperial China, perhaps best exemplified by the massive Tian'anmen Gate of Heavenly Peace , which remains the People's Republic of China's trademark edifice, the Forbidden City , the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Temple of Heaven.
Next, there is what is sometimes referred to as the "Sino-Sov" style, with structures tending to be boxy and sometimes poorly constructed, which were built between the s and the s. In the early 21st century, Beijing has witnessed tremendous growth of new building constructions, exhibiting various modern styles from international designers, most pronounced in the CBD region.
A mixture of both s design and neofuturistic style of architecture can be seen at the Art Zone , which mixes the old with the new.
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Both buildings are in the Beijing CBD. Beijing is famous for its siheyuans , a type of residence where a common courtyard is shared by the surrounding buildings. These courtyards are usually connected by alleys called hutongs. The hutongs are generally straight and run east to west so that doorways face north and south for good Feng Shui. They vary in width; some are so narrow only a few pedestrians can pass through at a time.
Once ubiquitous in Beijing, siheyuans and hutongs are rapidly disappearing, [79] as entire city blocks of hutongs are replaced by high-rise buildings. Many complain, however, that the traditional sense of community and street life of the hutongs cannot be replaced, [81] and these properties are often government owned. Autumn, similar to spring, is a season of transition and minimal precipitation.
Beijing has a long history of environmental problems. For example, surface albedo , wind speed and humidity near the surface were decreased, whereas ground and near-surface air temperatures , vertical air dilution and ozone levels were increased.
In heavy smog struck Beijing and most parts of northern China, impacting a total of million people. After this "pollution shock" air pollution became an important economic and social concern in China. Joint research between American and Chinese researchers in concluded that much of the city's pollution comes from surrounding cities and provinces.
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In , the city burned The first one Gaojing Thermal Power Plant was shut down in The last one Huaneng Thermal Power Plant would be shut in The government sometimes uses cloud-seeding measures to increase the likelihood of rain showers in the region to clear the air prior to large events, such as prior to the 60th anniversary parade in [] as well as to combat drought conditions in the area. More recently, however, the government has increased its usage of such measures as closing factories temporarily and implementing greater restrictions for cars on the road, as in the case of " APEC blue " and "parade blue," short periods during and immediately preceding the APEC China and the China Victory Day Parade , respectively.
Beijing air quality is often poor, especially in winter. It was widely reported, originally through a Twitter account, that the category was "crazy bad". This was later changed to "beyond index". On 8 and 9 December Beijing had its first smog alert which shut down a majority of the industry and other commercial businesses in the city. According to Beijing's environmental protection bureau's announcement in November , starting from highly polluting old cars will be banned from being driven whenever Smog "red alerts" are issued in the city or neighboring regions.
Due to Beijing's high level of air pollution, there are various readings by different sources on the subject. The smog is causing harm and danger to the population. The air pollution does directly result in significant impact on the mobility rate of cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease in Beijing. Dust from the erosion of deserts in northern and northwestern China results in seasonal dust storms that plague the city; the Beijing Weather Modification Office sometimes artificially induces rainfall to fight such storms and mitigate their effects.
The local CPC issues administrative orders, collects taxes, manages the economy, and directs a standing committee of the Municipal People's Congress in making policy decisions and overseeing the local government. Numerous bureaus focus on law, public security, and other affairs. Additionally, as the capital of China, Beijing houses all of the important national governmental and political institutions, including the National People's Congress.
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Beijing Municipality currently comprises 16 administrative county-level subdivisions including 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. On 13 November Miyun and Yanqing were upgraded to districts. Beijing's 16 county-level divisions districts are further subdivided into lower third-level administrative units at the township level : towns , 24 townships , 5 ethnic townships and subdistricts. Towns within Beijing Municipality but outside the urban area include but are not limited to :.
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The judicial system in Beijing consists of the Supreme People's Court , the highest court in the country, the Beijing Municipal High People's Court, the high people's court of the municipality, three intermediate people's courts , one intermediate railway transport court , 14 basic people's court one for each of the municipality's districts and counties , and one basic railway transport court. The Beijing No. About countries have embassies in Beijing , which are concentrated in Jianguomenwai, Sanlitun and Liangmaqiao in Chaoyang District.
Beijing is home to the headquarters of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation SCO , making it an important city for international diplomacy. Due to the concentration of state owned enterprises in the national capital, Beijing in had more Fortune Global Company headquarters than any other city in the world. The city has a post-industrial economy that is dominated by the tertiary sector services , which generated The single largest sub-sector remains industry, whose share of overall output has shrunk to In the farmland around Beijing, vegetables and fruits have displaced grain as the primary crops under cultivation.
In , the city government identified six high-end economic output zones around Beijing as the primary engines for local economic growth. In , the six zones produced Shijingshan , on the western outskirts of the city, is a traditional heavy industrial base for steel-making. Less legitimate enterprises also exist. Urban Beijing is known for being a center of infringed goods; anything from the latest designer clothing to DVDs can be found in markets all over the city, often marketed to expatriates and international visitors.
In , Beijing had a total population of Within China, the city ranked second in urban population after Shanghai and the third in municipal population after Shanghai and Chongqing.
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Beijing also ranks among the most populous cities in the world, a distinction the city has held for much of the past years, especially during the 15th to early 19th centuries when it was the largest city in the world. About 13 million of the city's residents in had local hukou permits , which entitles them to permanent residence in Beijing.
The population's rate of natural increase in was a mere 0.
Compared to , residents age 0—14 as a proportion of the population dropped from 9. In the Chinese government implemented population controls for Beijing and Shanghai to fight what it called the "big city disease" which includes congestion, pollution, and shortages of education and health care services. From this policy, Beijing's population declined by 20, from to Main article: Education in Beijing. See also: List of universities and colleges in Beijing. These universities were selected as " universities " and " universities " by the Chinese government in order to build world-class universities.
Beijing is also home to the two best universities Tsinghua and Peking in Asia and emerging countries. People native to urban Beijing speak the Beijing dialect , which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese. This speech is the basis for putonghua , the standard spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan , and one of the four official languages of Singapore.
Rural areas of Beijing Municipality have their own dialects akin to those of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing Municipality. Beijing or Peking opera is a traditional form of Chinese theater well known throughout the nation. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture , Beijing opera is performed through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences involving gestures, movement, fighting and acrobatics.
Much of Beijing opera is carried out in an archaic stage dialect quite different from Modern Standard Chinese and from the modern Beijing dialect. Beijing cuisine is the local style of cooking. Peking Roast Duck is perhaps the best known dish. Fuling Jiabing , a traditional Beijing snack food, is a pancake bing resembling a flat disk with a filling made from fu ling , a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Teahouses are also common in Beijing. Younger residents of Beijing have become more attracted to the nightlife, which has flourished in recent decades, breaking prior cultural traditions that had practically restricted it to the upper class. At the historical heart of Beijing lies the Forbidden City , the enormous palace compound that was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties; [] the Forbidden City hosts the Palace Museum, which contains imperial collections of Chinese art.
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Surrounding the Forbidden City are several former imperial gardens, parks and scenic areas, notably Beihai , Shichahai , Zhongnanhai , Jingshan and Zhongshan. These places, particularly Beihai Park, are described as masterpieces of Chinese gardening art, [] and are tourist destinations of historical importance; [] in the modern era, Zhongnanhai has also been the political heart of various Chinese governments and regimes and is now the headquarters of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. In the north of the city is the Temple of Earth Ditan , while the Temple of the Sun Ritan and the Temple of the Moon Yuetan lie in the eastern and western urban areas respectively.
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception , built in , is the oldest Catholic church in Beijing. The Niujie Mosque is the oldest mosque in Beijing, with a history stretching back over a thousand years. Beijing contains several well-preserved pagodas and stone pagodas, such as the towering Pagoda of Tianning Temple , which was built during the Liao dynasty from to , and the Pagoda of Cishou Temple , which was built in during the Ming dynasty. Historically noteworthy stone bridges include the 12th-century Lugou Bridge , the 17th-century Baliqiao bridge, and the 18th-century Jade Belt Bridge.
The Beijing Ancient Observatory displays pre-telescopic spheres dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Fragrant Hills Xiangshan is a public park that consists of natural landscaped areas as well as traditional and cultural relics. The Beijing Botanical Garden exhibits over 6, species of plants, including a variety of trees, bushes and flowers, and an extensive peony garden. The Beijing Zoo is a center of zoological research that also contains rare animals from various continents, including the Chinese giant panda.