Beijing

Introduction

Located on the North China Plain in the north-central part of the country, Beijing (also known as Peking) is the capital of the People's Republic of China and its second-largest city. As the political and cultural center of one of the world's largest and oldest countries almost continuously for nearly 800 years, Beijing has had a colorful and fascinating history, from its days as the aristocratic imperial "center of the world" to revolution, foreign occupation, and civil war in the twentieth century. During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Beijing was transformed yet again, as the economic liberalization and modernization of the post-Mao Zedong era turned the formerly austere Communist capital into a bustling commercial metropolis and tourist center and home to a thriving consumer economy. (Mao Zedong, 1893–1976, was the founder of the People's Republic of China and ruled from 1949 to 1959, but he remained chairman of the politburo until his death.)