History of Beijing

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The history of Beijing or Peking can be traced back 3,000 years^[1], when it was the capital of the ancient State of Yan^[1]. Since the Liao Dynasty, Beijing has been the capital city of several major dynasties of China. It is now the modern capital of the People's Republic of China.

Contents 1 Ancient period 2 Liao and Jin Dynasties 3 Yuan Dynasty 4 Ming Dynasty 5 Qing Dynasty 6 20th century 6.1 Boxer rebellion 7 Republic of China 7.1 Modernization 7.2 City planning 7.3 1920s 8 People's Republic of China 8.1 Cultural revolution 8.2 Tiananmen Square 9 Explosive growth 9.1 Environment 9.2 2008 Olympics 10 See also 11 References 12 Bibliography 12.1 Primary sources 13 Maps

[edit] Ancient period

The earliest remnants of human habitation in the Beijing municipality are found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where the Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic homo sapiens also lived there about 27,000 years ago.^[2] There were cities in the vicinities of Beijing by the 1st millennium BC, and the capital of the State of Yan, one of the powers of the Warring States Period (473-221 BC), Ji (薊/蓟), was established in present-day Beijing.^[3]

After the fall of the Yan, the subsequent Qin, Han, and Jin dynasties set-up local prefectures in the area.^[3] During the fall of the Han, it was the seat of the warlord Gongsun Zan. In Tang Dynasty it became the headquarter for Fanyang jiedushi, the virtual military governor of current northern Hebei area. An Lushan launched An Shi Rebellion from here in 755 AD.

[edit] Liao and Jin Dynasties

In 936, the Later Jin Dynasty (936-947) of northern China ceded a large part of its northern frontier, including modern Beijing, to the Khitan Liao Dynasty. In 938, the Liao Dynasty set up a secondary capital in what is now Beijing, and called it Nanjing (the "Southern Capital"). Sanmiao Road, the oldest road in Beijing, is believed to have originated from the Liao era.^[4] In 1125, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty conquered Liao, and in 1153 moved its capital to Liao's Nanjing, calling it Zhongdu (中都), "the central capital."^[3] Zhongdu was situated in what is now the area centered around Tianningsi, slightly to the southwest of central Beijing. Some of the oldest existing relics in Beijing such as the Tianning Temple date to the Liao era. Paper money was first issued in Beijing during the Jin.^[5]

[edit] Yuan Dynasty

Mongol forces burned Zhongdu to the ground in 1215 and rebuilt it to the north of the Jin capital in 1267.^[1] In preparation for the conquest of Southern Song Dynasty of China, Yuan Dynasty founder Kublai Khan made this his capital as Dadu (大都, Chinese for "grand capital"),^[1] also known as Daidu to the Mongols.^[6] This site is known as Cambuluc in Marco Polo's accounts. Apparently, Kublai Khan, who wanted to become a Chinese emperor, established his capital at this location instead of more traditional sites in central China because it was closer to his power base in Mongolia. The decision of Kublai greatly enhanced the status of a city that had been situated on the northern fringe of China proper and it was the true beginning of contemporary Beijing. The center of Dadu was situated slightly north of modern central Beijing. It centered on what is now the northern stretch of the 2nd Ring Road, and stretched northwards to between the 3rd and 4th Ring Roads. There are remnants of Yuan-era wall still standing.^[7]

[edit] Ming Dynasty

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, soon after declaring himself the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, sent an army toward Dadu, still held by the Yuan. The last Yuan emperor fled north to Shangdu, and Zhu razed the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground.^[8] After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, the city was later rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty and Shuntian (順天) prefecture was established in the area around the city.^[9] In 1403, the third Ming Emperor Yongle moved the Ming capital north to the renamed Beiping (北平), or "northern peace" from Nanjing (Nanking).^[1] During the Ming Dynasty, Beijing took its current shape, and the Ming-era city wall served as the Beijing city wall until modern times, when it was pulled down and the 2nd Ring Road was built in its place.^[10] It is believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world from 1425 to 1650 and from 1710 to 1825.^[11]

The Forbidden City was constructed soon after that (1406-1420),^[1] followed by the Temple of Heaven (1420),^[12] and numerous other construction projects. Tiananmen, which has become a state symbol of the People's Republic of China and is featured on its emblem, was built in 1651.^[13] Yongle moved the Ming capital back north to Beiping in 1421 as a measure to guard the empire against the Mongols and control the northern armies; he also renamed Beiping to Beijing (北京), or "northern capital".

Before the mid-15th century, Beijing residents relied on wood for heating and cooking. However, a population boom quickly led to a massive logging of the forests around the city, and by the mid-15th century the forests had largely disappeared. As a substitute, the residents had to use coal, which was found in West Mountain's coal mine and was brought from areas north of the city. The use of coal caused many environmental problems and changed the ecological system around the city.

During the Ming dynasty, 15 epidemic outbreaks occurred in the city of Beijing, including smallpox, "pimple plague," and "vomit blood plague" - the latter two were possibly bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. In most cases, the public health system functioned well in gaining control of the outbreaks, except in 1643. That year, epidemics claimed 200,000 lives in Beijing, thus compromising the defense of the city from the attacks of the peasant rebels and contributing to the downfall of the Ming dynasty.

The Ming dynasty built granaries known as the Jingtong storehouses. The government established administration and supervisory systems for the storehouses that proved mutually supporting. An abundance of grain had been stored, but with the population increase during the Ming dynasty, grain supplies substantially decreased to the extent that there was little food. The Jingtong granaries were forced to distribute grain to government officials, and at times allocated grain to the military. The Jingtong granaries were also used to control grain prices and prevent inflation, but eventually the dearth of grain decreased the ability of the granaries to control prices.

Highway banditry in Ming China's capital region during the 15th and 16th centuries owed much to the strong state presence radiating outward from Beijing. Due to administrative interstices, inadequate supervision, access to arms, and economic privation, the thousands of imperial troops in the capital region intended to protect the interests of the throne were often the most likely to turn to brigandage. In the same way, recipients of imperial favor such as eunuchs, imperial in-laws, and high officials often used their privileged position to engage in illegal activities, including acting as fences for local brigands. Even officials responsible for eradicating banditry maintained strong links to brigands and other marginal elements of Ming society. Thus brigandage need not be a phenomenon of the periphery, noting that it can also grow out of a strong state presence.^[14]

[edit] Qing Dynasty

In 1644, Li Zicheng led a major peasant uprising against the Ming Dynasty. He besieged and briefly captured the city of Beijing. The Manchu from the north took advantage of this rebellion, breeching the nearby Great Wall, and capturing the city from rebel control. The Manchus proclaimed the founding of the Qing Dynasty, and they would conquer the rest of China over the next few years. Beijing would remain their imperial capital for nearly three centuries^[15]. During this era, Beijing was also known as Jingshi, corresponding with the Manchu name Gemun Hecen^[16].

The Qing dynasty was able to maintain and secure a relatively stable and adequate supply of food for the population of the capital city of Beijing during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The Qing state played a paramount role in regulating grain distribution and market forces, policing food supplies, and providing relief when necessary, mostly in the form of soup kitchens. The grain tribute system, by which the Qing state acquired grain from other regions of China, was vital in supplying Beijing's population with food. Beijing's food supply and prices during this period, relative to contemporary Paris and London, were stable. The Qing leadership found that providing food security in Beijing helped maintain a degree of political stability.^[17]

Several temple fairs, including the Huguo fair, began to be held in Beijing from the end of the Ming to the mid-Qing dynasty. These temple fairs, different from those organized in commemoration of the spirits, were much more like bazaars and were held every month around the temples. They constituted the most important market network in Beijing in the Qing dynasty. The prosperity of these temple fairs signaled a new stage in the city's commercial history and showed how some of the temples were transformed from sacred to secular space. Both the Qing rulers' attitude toward religion and the city's isolation policy enforced by the Manchus after they occupied Beijing affected the temple fairs' location and development.

The Qing court in China included dramatic performances to entertain the emperor. These performances were the responsibility of the Nanfu, an office of the imperial household. When Qianlong was emperor (1736-95), the Nanfu had up to a thousand employees, including actors, musicians, and court eunuchs. In 1827, Qianlong's grandson Daoguang changed the name from Nanfu to Shengpingshu, severely downsized the department, and reduced the number of performances. The Shengpingshu thereafter hired civilian Beijing residents and monitored their interactions with other acting troupes. Thus the Shengpingshu took authority over all Beijing drama troupes, keeping a register of all authorized groups, controlling an actor's ability to travel or change troupes, and censoring the scripts of all palace performances. The Shengpingshu continued in the republican period until the expulsion of Puyi, the last emperor, in 1924. Actors were one of many socially debased groups in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. One reason for their low status was the strong association of theater performers with prostitution. By the late Qing, actors in Beijing had been able to take advantage of political change to improve their status. By the dynasty's end, it was individual behavior rather than professional association that determined their status. ^[18]

The baojia system of local government and surveillance was adopted in 1813 after the rebellion of the Eight Trigrams sect failed to improve social order in the capital. In 1860 British and French forces captured the city after destroying much of the imperial Summer Palace.

Peking University was founded in the northwest section of the city in 1898. The nearby Qinghua University was founded in 1911.

[edit] 20th century

In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion Beijing was violently conquered and looted by the Eight Power Allied Force. In 1928 Beijing became "Beiping" after the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) moved the national capital to Nanjing, and Beijing therefore lost its status of political center. In late July 1937, Beijing was occupied by the Japanese army until 1945. In late January, 1949 Beijing surrendered to the Communist regime and became the capital city for Mao Zedong.

[edit] Boxer rebellion

A large foreign quarter developed in Beijing during the 1800s, where diplomats, missionaries, and other foreigners lived. This section of the city was unsuccessfully besieged by Chinese forces during the Boxer Rebellion in the summer of 1900^[19]. In retaliation, the foreign armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked and looted the city. They also looted and burned the Old Summer Palace.

The Boxer Rebellion and the siege of Beijing of 1900 brought worldwide attention to the city. The Boxers began as an obscure, anti-Christian, antimissionary, and antiforeign peasant movement in northern China. The Empress Dowager Cixi was pleased when Boxers attacked foreigners who were building railroads, exploiting China's mineral wealth, dividing up the port trading concessions, and converting many peasants to an alien faith. In June, 1900, the Boxers invaded the city and slaughtered many Chinese Christians and Westerners. The Chinese government was unable or unwilling to control the situation. Western civilians, military personnel, and Chinese Christians retreated to the legation quarter. For 55 days they survived with limited food and water. In August Western troops occupied the city by force of arms. The Empress Dowager grudgingly agreed to indemnify the Western governments and to make many additional concessions. Subsequent reforms laid the foundation for the end of Manchu rule and the establishment of a modern nation.^[20]

[edit] Republic of China

On 1911 October 10, the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. Beijing remained the capital of this new republic, but political instability in the new government eventually deteriorated into civil war. Beijing became the site of several conflicts between rival warlord factions, changing hands several times over the next two decades. ^[21]

On 1919 May 4, university students in Beijing gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest the foreign occupation of Chinese cities and the failure of Chinese diplomats at the Paris Peace Conference to negotiate the return of these cities at the end of the First World War. These protests began the May Fourth Movement, which would have a profound influence on contemporary Chinese literature and politics.

By 1927, the Chinese Nationalists had established a rival national capital in Nanjing, and by 1928 June 8, the Nationalist Army had taken control of Beijing. The capital of the Republic of China was officially moved to Nanjing, and Beijing was renamed Beiping 北平 (Wade-Giles: Peip'ing) ^[22], or "Northern Peace".^[23]

The Japanese attacked Beiping following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 1937 July 7. They took complete control of the city by July 29^{[23] [24]}, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese created a puppet state to manage the occupied Chinese territories and designated Beiping as its capital. ^[25] This government was latter merged with another Japanese puppet state, the Chinese government of Wang Jingwei, with its capital in Nanjing, although Beiping effectively remained independent of Nanjing until the end of the War^[26].

Beiping reverted to Nationalist control after the Japanese surrender on August 1945. The Nationalists and Chinese Communists were allies during the Sino-Japanese War, but relations between the two rival political parties had disintegrated by June 1946. After two years of fighting, the Communists had gained control over most of northern China, and the Nationalists abandoned Beiping, allowing the Communists to capture the city unchallenged on 1949, January 31.

Rickshaws were more popular in Beijing than in other cities in the 20th century due to the limited public transportation resources, the low cost of rickshaw fares, and the large number of passengers. The poor job market in industry in Beijing caused many unemployed people to become rickshaw pullers. Thus, the pool of rickshaw pullers in Beijing was made up mostly of local residents. A number of descendants of the former royal family of the Qing dynasty also found employment in the rickshaw-pulling trade. The income of rickshaw pullers was not stable; many had to take two shifts a day to support their families.

[edit] Modernization

In late Qing China girls' schools were supported by reformers and the reactionary government alike. In post-Boxer China the necessity of change was accepted by the central government and even Cixi, the dowager empress, called for the education of women. But while the government sought educated women who could be "good wives and wise mothers," activists called for varying degrees of female independence and integration in society at large. Many political reformers favored female education as a form of national self-strengthening but all efforts were haunted by concerns over threats to morality. Confucian roots could be found for opposition to footbinding (Beijing girls' schools made unbound feet an entrance requirement) but not for the greater freedom and end to gender segregation called for by some feminists. Generally, female educational reformers in Beijing sought evolutionary changes due to their own links with the current elite.^[27]

The Peking Union Medical College, founded by the Rockefeller Foundation (based in New York) in 1924, set the standard in prewar and wartime China for the training of nurses, but it had a mixed legacy. Its high training standards earned the college a reputation for elitism and inflexibility. Moreover, maintaining strict high standards did little to meet China's acute need for nurses. On the other hand, the college made major inroads into pre- and postnatal nursing, public health nursing, and rural nursing. Moreover, the college played an instrumental role in transforming nursing from a foreign and male-dominated profession into one dominated by female, Chinese nurses.^[28]

The Beijing Police Academy, founded in 1901, was China's first modern institution of police training and also the largest police training center in the late Qing period. The school hired Japanese teachers to undertake most of the teaching and administrative work. The school provided a national useful model for police academies in other major cities and exerted great influence on the development of China's modern police forces.

From early antiquity through the end of the 19th century, the primary missions of Chinese imperial and private libraries were to collect and preserve books and documents. Except for a few isolated historical periods, these libraries rendered no services at all to the public. The Metropolitan University Library in Beijing, founded in 1898, was China's first modern academic library with a clear goal of serving a burgeoning program of public higher education. The library's founding reveals an intriguing story of tension between the modern Western and traditional Chinese concepts of what a library should be.^[29]

[edit] City planning

Beijing went from a planned imperial city into a modern metropolis in the early 20th century. The newly created municipal government sought to modernize Beijing through public works to improve the old urban infrastructure. Consequently, city walls and gates were reconfigured; streets were paved, widened, and expanded; and new rules of urban planning and zoning were introduced. Reflecting changes in political power relations, the modernist transformation in the urban built environment was evidently brought about by a combined force of Western influences and Chinese indigenous developments, especially by a shift in ideological allegiance from imperial authority to people's rights, by the state's increasing intervention in urban affairs, and by new technologies transmitted from the West.^[30]

In the early 20th century municipal governments, local gentry, and merchants all contributed to the concept and organization of public parks in Beijing. The idea of the public park as a place where common people could relax in a pastoral setting came to China from the West via Japan. The Beijing municipal council argued that parks would provide wholesome entertainment and thus reduce alcohol use, gambling, and prostitution. Built on sites of former imperial gardens and temples, parks represented modernity and good health and morals. They also provided places for commercial activities and the open exchange of political and social ideas for the middle and upper classes.^[31]

City officials improved public health by promoting better sanitation and health education initiatives. A comparison of living standards and mortality rates among the Qing imperial lineage and the residents of Beijing's First Demonstration Health Station demonstrates the efficacy of projects that provided clean water, sanitation, and education on the proper handling of food and wastes. Even when improvements in the standard of living are considered, public health measures exerted a strong influence over the control of contagion within the general population.^[32]

[edit] 1920s

Two mass movements erupted in Beijing during October and November 1925: the Movement for Tariff Autonomy and the Capital Revolution. They had different origins and motives. The Movement for Tariff Autonomy drew the participation of thousands of students in its demonstrations against the Special Conference on Customs Tarrifs, an international meeting in October to decide the extent of China's control of its national tariffs. Violent clashes with police transformed this movement into a more radical, Bolshevik-style revolt against local warlord Duan Qirui (1865-1936). The second movement, known as the Capital Revolution, was led by Nationalist Party representative Li Dazhao and involved massive demonstrations, violence, political demands, and the destruction of the offices of one of Beijing's leading newspapers, Chenbao. This student-based revolt was unable to supplant warlord control of the city and disbanded by late November.^[33]

[edit] People's Republic of China

On October 1 of the same year, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China at the gates of Tiananmen. The name of Beiping was restored to Beijing, and the city was again designated as the capital of China^[34].

As the capital of the new Communist state, the Communists began a major building campaign to modernize the city. The old city wall encircling the city was demolished and replaced by what is now the 2nd Ring Road^[35]. Some older neighborhoods were also demolished and replaced by modern apartment buildings. Several modern monuments, including the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, and the National Museum of China were completed by 1959. The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong was built much later in 1979.

[edit] Cultural revolution

During the late years of the Cultural Revolution decade (1966-76), political life in China was dominated by contention between radical and conservative factions in the Communist Party. Mao Zedong's ambivalence, first supporting one faction and then the other, has long puzzled scholars.

China's Red Guard movement of 1966-68 shows that rapid shifts in the properties of political institutions can alter choices and actors' interests, rapidly transforming the political landscape. New evidence about the origins of the movement in Beijing's universities indicates that factions emerged when activists in similar structural positions made opposed choices in ambiguous contexts. Activists subsequently mobilized to defend earlier choices, binding them to antagonistic factions. Rapid shifts in the contexts for political choice can alter prior connections between social position and interests, generating new motives and novel identities.^[36]

Andreas (2006) argues that factional contention was being institutionalized, creating a system that pitted administrators against rebels: veteran cadres were put in charge of the political and economic bureaucracies, while radicals were given institutional means to mobilize political campaigns against these officials, pressing Mao's radical agenda. Andreas examines in detail the system of governance implemented at Qinghua University in Beijing. Power was divided between veteran university officials and a "workers' propaganda team," composed of workers and soldiers drawn from outside the school, and the propaganda team was charged with mobilizing students and workers to criticize their teachers, supervisors, and university officials. The result was a tumultuous system very much at odds with the conventional practice of ruling Communist parties (including the Chinese Party before the Cultural Revolution), which had been guided by ideals of monolithic unity and a clear hierarchy of authority.^[37]

Beijing was the center of Red Guard activity during the Cultural Revolution. Following the death of the popular Zhou Enlai, frustration with the excesses of the Cultural Revolution precipitated into a spontaneous protest at the Monument to the People's Heroes on 1976 April 5, known as the Tiananmen Incident^[38]. From 1977 until 1979, Beijing was also the site of the Beijing Spring and Democracy Wall Movement, a short-lived easing of political censorship in the city. The Beijing democracy movement (1978-81) constructed a progressive Marxist identity, and its individual participants used it to prove the movement's historical necessity and justify its democratic agenda. Combined with the related identity of socialist citizens, the proponents defended the movement against adversaries from without and the right-wing minority within. The way the movement activists defined their collective identity offered them a progressive Marxist platform to champion their cause. This collective identity not only precluded confrontational opposition to the Communist Party, it enabled a more constructive use of both classical Marxist and Western democratic thinking in the movement's agenda.^[39]

[edit] Tiananmen Square

On May 4, 1989, students from Beijing area universities began gathering in Tiananmen Square to publicly mourn the recent death Hu Yaobang, an ambitious political reformer and the former Secretary-General of the Chinese Communist Party. Over the next few days, the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 would attract many thousands of protesters from throughout Beijing society. The protests were dispersed by force by the People's Liberation Army on 1989 June 4.

[edit] Explosive growth

The 1990s and the start of the new millennium were a period of rapid economic growth in Beijing. Following the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping, what was once farmland surrounding the city was developed into new residential and commercial districts^[40]. Modern expressways and high-rise buildings were built throughout the city to accommodate the growing and increasingly affluent population of the city. Foreign investment transformed Beijing into one of the most cosmopolitan and prosperous cities in the world.

[edit] Environment

Rapid modernization and population growth thus created numerous problems associated with heavy industry such as heavy traffic, pollution, the destruction of historic neighborhoods, and a large population of impoverished migrant workers from the countryside. By early 2005, the city government attempted to control urban sprawl by restricting development to two semicircular bands to the west and east of the city center, instead of the concentric rings of suburbs that had been built in the past ^[41].

The rapid growth of population, motor vehicles and factories has created high polluation levels. Days with gray, acrid skies, with an eye-reddening pollution score over 400, are common, as health officials advise wearing masks and staying indoors. Heavy trucks are allowed in only at night but their diesel fuels create much of the problem. By 2008 for the city’s 12 million residents, pollution was not only an inescapable health and quality-of-life issue, but a political issue tied in with the Summer Olympics scheduled for August 2008. The city's bid for the 2000 Olympics in 1993 failed partly because of high pollution levels, and in response the city began a massive cleanup campaign. That campaign has been successful in terms of 2000 standards, but the city's economy is 2.5 times larger now, with millions more people. Over 3 million cars and trucks clog the streets, and 400,000 more are added annually as the wealth shoots up rapidly. Old dirty, coal-burning furnaces have been replaced, lowering the city’s sulfur dioxide emissions. Factories and power plants were changed to burn cleaner, low-sulfur coal; sulfur dioxide emissions fell by 25% 2001-2007, even though much more coal is burned, reaching 30 million tons in 2006. Furthermore, fine-particle pollution has been exacerbated by a staggering citywide construction program which saw more than 160 million square meters (1.7 billion square feet) of new construction begun 2002-2007. Athletes may have some breathing problems, but in the long-run air quality is expected to remain a critical issue as the city grows to a projected population of 20 million.^[42]

[edit] 2008 Olympics

Beijing hosted the Olympic Games in August of 2008. Several landmark sports venues, such as the Beijing National Stadium or the "Bird's Nest", were built for these games^[43].

[edit] See also

• Rebellion of Cao Qin

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Brook, Timothy. Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement. 1998. 269 pp.
• Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. The Making and Selling of Post-Mao Beijing (2004) online edition
• Campbell, Cameron Dougall. "Chinese Mortality Transitions: The Case of Beijing, 1700-1990." PhD dissertation U. of Pennsylvania 1995. 467 pp. DAI 1995 56(5): 1997-A. DA9532148 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Dong, Madeleine Yue. Republican Beijing: The City and Its Histories (2003) excerpt and text search
• Li, Lillian; Dray-Novey, Alison; Kong, Haili (2007). Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City. New York, New York, United States: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1403964734. 
• Elliott, Mark C. (2001). The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China. Palo Alto, California, United States: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804746842. http://books.google.com/books?id=_qtgoTIAiKUC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Geiss, James. "Beijing under the Ming (1368-1644)," Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1979.
• Gaubatz, Piper. "Changing Beijing." Geographical Review 1995 85(1): 79-96. Issn: 0016-7428 Fulltext: in Jstor; online edition
• Harper, Damian, and David Eimer. Lonely Planet Beijing City Guide (2007) excerpt and text search
• Li, Lillian M. et al. Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City. (2007). 336 pp. excerpt and text search
• Meyer, Jeffrey F. The Dragons of Tiananmen: Beijing as a Sacred City. 1991. 208 pp.
• Naquin, Susan. Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900. U. of California Press, 2000. 816 pp. excerpt and text search
• Shi, Mingzheng. "Beijing Transforms: Urban Infrastructure, Public Works, and Social Change in the Chinese Capital, 1900-1928." PhD dissertation Columbia U. 1993. 467 pp. DAI 1994 54(7): 2699-A. DA9333861 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Song, Weijie. "Mapping Modern Beijing: A Literary and Cultural Topography, 1900s-1950s." PhD dissertation Columbia U. 2006. 301 pp. DAI 2006 67(4): 1346-A. DA3213600 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Weston, Timothy B. The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals, and Chinese Political Culture, 1898-1929. 2004. 325 pp excerpt and text search; complete edition online
• Xu, Yamin. "Wicked Citizens and the Social Origins of China's Modern Authoritarian State: Civil Strife and Political Control in Republican Beiping, 1928-1937." PhD dissertation U. of California, Berkeley 2002. 573 pp. DAI 2003 64(2): 613-A. DA3082468 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• MacKerras, Colin; Yorke, Amanda (1991). The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China. Cambridge, England, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521387558. http://books.google.com/books?id=yiq_f71uXboC&printsec=frontcover&dq=beiping+beijing&source=gbs_summary_r. 
• Zhu, Jianfei. Chinese Spatial Strategies: Imperial Beijing, 1420-1911 (2003) online edition

[edit] Primary sources

• Gamble, Sidney David, ed. Peking: A Social Survey (1921) 514 pages; study by American social scienctists full text online

[edit] Maps

• online historical maps from Perry-Castañeda Library

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