Article Travel Leisure Tip

Another Chinese city similarly named is NanJing
meaning south capital.

At times in history
the capital was declared to be NanJing rather than BeiJing
according to whether the then current powerbase lay to the north or south of China.

Emperor Wu was the first to declare the site of Beijing as the capital in 1057 BC. Subsequently
the city has gone by the names of Ji
ZhongDu
Dadu
then finally Beijing when the name was chosen by the Ming Dynasty Emperor ChengZu in 1421. Before 1949
Beijing was known as Peking by the Western world. Beijing was once again the capital only when Mao ZeDong declared the Peoples Republic of China on October 1st 1949.

Beijing first served as the capital of a (more or less) united China in 1264 when Kublai Khans victorious Mongol forces set up the city of Dadu (Great Capital) to rule their new empire
from a northern location closer to the Mongol homelands. After the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in 1368
the capital was moved back to Nanjing
but in 1403
the 3rd Ming emperor Zhu Di moved it to Beijing again and also gave the city its present name.

This was Beijings golden era: the Forbidden City
the Temple of Heaven and many other Beijing landmarks were built at this time. Beijing remained the capital into the Qing era and into the revolutionary ferment of the early 1900s
but in the chaos following the abdication of the last Emperor
Beijing was beset by fighting warlords. The Kuomintang thus moved the capital to Nanjing again in 1928
renaming Beijing as Beijing ("Northern Peace") to emphasize that it was no longer a capital. However
the Kuomintang was eventually defeated by the Communists
who in 1949 proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China with its capital at Beijing.

Beijing is divided in 18 districts. Some central Beijing districts are Haidian District (home of Chinas Silicon Valley -Zhongguancun- and 39 universities including Beijing
Tsinghua and Renmin Universities); Chongwen District; Xuanwu District ( for traditional medicine); Chaoyang District (Art District and flea market district); Xicheng District and Dongcheng District. The last two ones are very nice areas where you can find some public parks and green areas and boutique hotels nestled in hold traditional hutongs ( like the Spring Garden Courtyard Hotel) in the former or a lot of youth hostels for international backpackers in the latter.

The 9 dragons youth hostel
the Saga youth Hostel
the Courtyard Hotel
Beijing Harbour Inn Hostel
the Beijing New Dragon Hostel
Beijing City Central youth Hostel are just some of them.