General Information » China Overview » Beijing Timeline

500,000 yrs ago Peking Man lives near Beijing, in the area where the village of Zhououdian is now.

475 BC Warring States Period. The city of Ji becomes the capital of Yan state.

221 BC Qin Dynasty. The Great Wall is begun and an underground mausoleum built at Xi’an, guarded by thousands of terracotta warriors.

206 BC Han Dynasty. Chinese culture and goods are exported to central Asia, the Middle East and Europe along the Silk Road. Other cultures reach China in return.

618-907 Tang Dynasty. The Khitans move south from the Liaohe River and occupy Ji, making it their second capital. They rename it Yanjing (Southern Capital).

1115-1234 Jin Dynasty. The Jurchen take over Yanjing and rename it Zhongdu (Central Capital), building beautiful palaces.

1215 Genghis Khan leads his Mongol army into Zhongdu, giving the city provincial status.

1271 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, establishes the Yuan Dynasty and renames the city Khanbalig, which means Dadu (Great Capital) in Chinese.

1293 The Tonghui Canal opens, connecting Khanbalig with the Grand Canal and the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Hangzhou.

1368 Ming soldiers seize the city, renaming it Beiping (Northern Peace). The capital is moved south to Nanjing.

1406 Ming emperor Yongle starts a 15 year project to build 12m walls around Beiping.

1417-1420 The palace buildings and gardens that now form the Forbidden City are built. Yongle transfers the capital from Nanjing and names his new capital Beijing (Northern Capital).

1644 The Manchus found the Qing Dynasty and begin to build a series of gardens including Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace).

1839-1862 Opium Wars. China loses and is forced to cede Hong Kong to Britain and open up treaty ports to foreign powers.

1851-1864 Nanjing falls to an army of religious zealots led by Hong Xiuquan. All 100,000 take their own lives rather than surrender to the Qing soldiers that retake the city.

1899-1901 The Boxer Rebellion. In one conflict, a 45 day siege of foreign legations in Beijing is ended by a multinational rescue force.

1911 Collapse of the Qing Dynasty and end of imperial China. The Provisional Republican Government of China is set up. Yuan Shikai becomes the first president.

1915 Yuan Shikai declares himself emperor but dies within a year. China falls under the control of feuding regional warlords.

1928 With Beijing still under warlord rule, the Kuomintang nationalists change its name back to Beiping and make Nanjing capital of the Republic of China.

1937 Beiping falls to Japanese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It reverts to Beijing. Some 300,000 Chinese are massacred...