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Beijing
national capital, China
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Also known as: Beiping, Cambaluc, Chung-tu, Dadu, Khan-baliq, Khanbaliq, Pei Chih-li, Pei-ching, Pei-p’ing, Peking, Ta-tu, Yanjing, Yen-ching, Zhongdu
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Beijing, Wade-Giles romanization Pei-ching, conventional Peking, city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People’s Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. The city has been an integral part of China’s history over the past eight centuries, and nearly every major building of any age in Beijing has at least some national historical significance. The importance of Beijing thus makes it impossible to understand China without a knowledge of this city. More than 2,000 years ago, a site north of ...(100 of 13841 words)