Beijing
Capital city of China / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Beijing?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Beijing,[lower-alpha 1] alternatively romanized as Peking,[lower-alpha 2] is the capital of China. With more than 22 million residents,[9] Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city after Shanghai.[10] It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts.[11] Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the Jingjinji megalopolis and the national capital region of China.[12]
Beijing
北京 Peking | |
|---|---|
| Municipality of Beijing | |
 | |
.svg) Location of Beijing Municipality within China | |
| Coordinates (Tian'anmen Square national flag): 39°54′24″N 116°23′51″E | |
| Country | China |
| Established | 1045 BC |
| Founded by | Zhou dynasty (Western Zhou) |
| Municipal seat | Tongzhou District |
| Divisions - County-level - Township- level | 16 districts 343 towns and subdistricts |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality |
| • Body | Beijing Municipal People's Congress |
| • CCP Secretary | Yin Li |
| • Congress Chairman | Li Xiuling |
| • Mayor | Yin Yong |
| • CPPCC Chairman | Wei Xiaodong |
| • National People's Congress Representation | 53 deputies |
| Area | |
| • Municipality | 16,410.54 km2 (6,336.14 sq mi) |
| • Land | 16,410.54 km2 (6,336.14 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 16,410.54 km2 (6,336.14 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 12,796.5 km2 (4,940.8 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 43.5 m (142.7 ft) |
| Highest elevation | 2,303 m (7,556 ft) |
| Population (2020 census)[2] | |
| • Municipality | 21,893,095 |
| • Density | 1,300/km2 (3,500/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 21,893,095 |
| • Urban density | 1,300/km2 (3,500/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 22,366,547 |
| • Metro density | 1,700/km2 (4,500/sq mi) |
| • Ranks in China | Population: 27th; Density: 4th |
| Major ethnic groups | |
| • Han | 95% |
| GDP[3] | |
| • Municipality | ¥4.161 trillion (13th) $618.648 billion (nominal) $1.016 trillion (PPP) |
| • Per capita | ¥190,059 (2nd) $28,258 (nominal) $46,401 (PPP) |
| Time zone | UTC+08:00 (CST) |
| Postal codes | 100000–102629 |
| Area code | 10 |
| ISO 3166 code | CN-BJ |
| – Growth |  0.7% |
| License plate prefixes | 京A, C, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q 京B (taxis) 京G, Y (outside urban area) 京O, D (police and authorities) |
| Abbreviation |
|
| HDI (2021) | 0.907[4] (1st) – very high |
| Website | beijing.gov.cn english |
| Symbols | |
| Flower | China rose (Rosa chinensis) Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) |
| Tree | Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) Pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum) |
.jpg)
| Beijing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 "Beijing" in regular Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 北京 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Běijīng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Postal | Peking[note 1] Peiping (1368–1403; 1928–1937; 1945–1949) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Northern Capital" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beijing is a global city and one of the world's leading centres for culture, diplomacy, politics, finance, business and economics, education, research, language, tourism, media, sport, science and technology and transportation and art. It is home to the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies and houses the largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world, as well as the world's four biggest financial institutions by total assets.[13] It is also a major hub for the national highway, expressway, railway, and high-speed rail networks. For a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beijing Capital International Airport was Asia's busiest airport (2009–2019) and the second busiest airport in the world (2010–2019).[14] In 2020, the Beijing subway was the fourth busiest and second longest in the world.[15] The Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing's second international airport, is the largest single-structure airport terminal in the world.[16][17]
Combining both modern and traditional style architectures, with one side of the city being modernized and renovated to fit the times, and the other half still offering traditional hutong districts.[18] Beijing is one of the oldest cities in the world, with a rich history dating back over three millennia. As the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political center of the country for most of the past eight centuries,[19] and was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium CE.[20] With mountains surrounding the inland city on three sides, in addition to the old inner and outer city walls, Beijing was strategically poised and developed to be the residence of the emperor and thus was the perfect location for the imperial capital. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates.[21] Beijing is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world. In 2018, Beijing was the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai.[22] Beijing is home to many national monuments and museums and has seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, and parts of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal—all of which are popular tourist locations.[23] Siheyuans, the city's traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing.
Beijing's public universities make up more than one-fifth of Double First-Class Construction universities, and many of them consistently rank among the best in the Asia-Pacific and the world.[24][25][26] Beijing is home to the two best C9 League universities (Tsinghua and Peking) in Asia & Oceania region and emerging countries.[27][28] Beijing CBD is a center for Beijing's economic expansion, with the ongoing or recently completed construction of multiple skyscrapers. Beijing's Zhongguancun area is a world leading center of scientific and technological innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Beijing has been ranked the city with the largest scientific research output by the Nature Index since the list's inception in 2016.[29][30] The city has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Paralympics Games. In 2022, Beijing became the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics,[31] and also the Summer and Winter Paralympics.[32] Beijing hosts 175 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many organizations, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Silk Road Fund, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Central Academy of Drama, the Central Conservatory of Music, and the Red Cross Society of China.