Beijing History of Beijing Museum
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Beijing's history originates some 3000 years ago, when it was a trading post between Korea, China and the Mongols, and the city grew in significance through until 1215, when Genghis Khan levelled it, before giving it to his son Kubla Khan, at which point it was known as Dadu meaning Great Capital.
In 1368, Zhu Yanhang the mercenary led an uprising which saw the city returned to Chinese hands, and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, which ruled China until the 17th Century, first from Nanjing, and then from Beijing.
The Qing Dynasty, who followed the Mings were to expand the city enormously, and it was them who built many of the most imposing structures such as the Forbidden City, although they were deposed in the 1911 nationalist revolution, which rather than creating stability saw the beginning of a civil war between the government and local warlords which weakened the country significantly, and paved the way for the Japanese invasion.
After a gap in hostilities until the end of the Second World War, the civil war began again in earnest, with 4 years of strife leading to Mao Zedong's declaration of the republic in 1949, and began the systematic destruction of history that finally ended with the 10 years of chaos ushered in by the cultural revolution of 1966.
The emergence of Deng Xiaoping as premier in 1979 saw a gradual opening up of the country, which has culminated in the successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic games.
The future is doubtful for Beijing however, with Shanghai's emergence as the premier city for business in the country, and the encroachment of the Gobi desert into the city, its possible that despite 3000 years of history, there may not be time for much more.
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