| |
 Beijing
first achieved prominence during the Warring States Period(476¡ª221
BC),when it became the capital of the Kingdom of Yan and was called
Ji (meaning ¡°reeds¡±, because of the marshy nature of the terrain).The
Mongolian emperor, Kublai Khan, renamed it Dadu (great capital)when
he made it the base for his Yuan Dynasty(1271¡ª1368 AD),but the first
emperor of the succeeding Ming Dynasty moved his court to Nanjing
(Nanking),where it remained until the third emperor returned the royal
seat to Beijing.
Hence the name, Beijing, meaning
¡°northern capital¡±, was used as opposed to Nanjing, which mean¡¯s ¡°southern
capital¡±. Since then, Beijing has always been the capital of the nation,
except for a brief period during the civil war in the first half of
this century, when Chiang Kai-shek¡¯s commanding army again moved the
government to Nanjing.
It
was from the rostrum in Beijing¡¯s Tian¡¯anmen Square that, on October
1,1949, the late Chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the founding
of the People¡¯s Republic of China.
|
|
|
