Beijing

Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had numerous other names. The name Beijing, which means 'Northern Capital' (from the Chinese characters 北 běi for 'north' and 京 jīng for 'capital'), was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing (南京, 'Southern Capital'). The English spelling Beijing is based on the government's official romanization (adopted in the 1980s) of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. An older English spelling, Peking, was used by Jesuit missionary Martino Martini in a popular atlas published in Amsterdam in 1655. Although Peking is no longer the common name for the city, some of the city's older locations and facilities, such as Beijing Capital International Airport, with the IATA code PEK, and Peking University, still retain the former romanization. …

The earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, located in central Beijing. The first walled city in Beijing was Ji, the eponymous capital city of the state of Ji. Within modern Beijing, Ji was located around the present Guang'anmen area in the south of Xicheng District. During the early Zhou period, this settlement was conquered by the state of Yan (11th century BC – 222 BC), whose original capital was located 45 kilometres (28 mi) southwest in Fangshan District, and made its new capital. …

Beijing is situated at the northern edge of the roughly triangular North China Plain, which opens to the south and east of the city. Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing District and Huairou District, are dominated by the Jundu Mountains, while the western part is framed by Xishan or the Western Hills. The Great Wall of China across the northern part of Beijing Municipality was built on the rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes. Mount Dongling, in the Western Hills and on the border with Hebei, is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of 2,303 metres (7,556 ft). …