History
Tied to the history of its name, Beijing has a long history. Archeological findings show that Peking Man, dated 500,000 years ago, lived for a very long time in Zhoukoudian, a cave system in Beijing Municipality. From the Warring States period (473 – 221 B.C.), Beijing was the capital of Yan State and was called Ji. In the Liao Dynasty (938 A.D.) it was named Nanjing (Southern Capital). It was called Zhongdu (Central Capital) in 1153, when it became the capital of the Jin Dynasty. In 1283, Beijing became the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty and was called Dadu (Great Capital) by its Mongol rulers. In 1368 the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Mongols and called Beijing Beiping (Northern Peace). From 1421 it was known as Jingshi (Model Capital) and when the Qing Dynasty captured Beijing in 1644, it continued to keep that name. During the Republican Era the capital was called Beijing in 1911, then when Nanjing became the capital of China briefly in 1928, and Beijing reverted to the name Beiping. When Mao began the Era of the People's Republic in 1949, Beijing was set in its current position (with its current name) as national capital (Shoudu).
 

Places of Interest and Stories
Forbidden City
At the heart of Beijing's historical centre lies the Forbidden City, the enormous palace compound that was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties; the Forbidden City also hosts the Palace Museum, which contains imperial collections of Chinese art. Surrounding the Forbidden City are several former imperial gardens, parks and scenic areas, notably  Beihai, Houhai, Shichahai, Zhongnanhai, Jingshan and Zhongshan. These places, like the Beihai Park are described to be masterpieces of Chinese gardening art, and are popular tourist destinations with tremendous historical importance; Zhongnanhai during the modern era has also been the political heart of various Chinese governments and regimes and is now the headquarters of the Communist Party of China. From Tiananmen Square, which is located right across from the Forbidden City, there are several notable sites, such as the Tiananmen, Qianmen, Great Hall of the People, National Museum of China, Monument to the People's Heroes, and Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace both lie at the western part of the urban city of Beijing; the Summer Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site,displays a comprehensive collection of imperial gardens and palaces that functioned as the summer retreat for the Qing Dynasty emperors.

 

Tiananmen Square
The Tiananmen Rostrum, standing to the north of the Tiananmen Square, precisely on the south – north central axis of Beijing, was the main gate to the Forbidden City-Palace museum for emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties,it was initially called Cheng Tian Men or the Gate of Carrying Heaven, which means to shoulder the edict of the Heaven, and obtain the divine power from Heaven. In the eighth year of emperor Shunzhi's administration, the gate was renovated and called Tiananmen. From then on, nearly all important imperial celebrations and events such as the enthronement of a new emperor, the wedding of the emperor, the rite of going to a battle by the emperor himself, the famous "Imperial Edict Issued by Golden Phoenix", worshipping the Heaven and the earth, and worshipping the five sorts of grains were held in this square.

 

The Siheyuan Compound
The Siheyuan Compound dates back to the Western Zhou (1027-771B.C.) Dynasty. Most attempts at describing a Siheyuan Compound fall miserably short of conveying an intelligible image, via words, of how such a compound is actually laid out. The following is an attempt to give a brief verbal description of the Siheyuan Compound, in the hope that the reader will understand next time, the term is met. With its walls on all four sides, it offered protection both from intruders, whether animal or man, and from the wind (and windborne dust, snow, etc.). It offered ample space for a hierarchy of different buildings with different functions, from the utilitarian to the social, the latter reflecting the social status of the individual; it offered space for smaller, more intimate gardens, including kitchen gardens where vegetables could be grown, as well as space for a larger, communal, center courtyard.  In short, the Siheyuan Compound met all the needs of a feudal lord, a bourgeois merchant, or an extended Chinese family in the way of a private residence, where privacy could be enjoyed when desired, and where communality could be pursued when broader social interaction was the order of the day.

 

Great Wall
The Great Wall was initially built in the Spring and Autumn Period. During the following 2,000 years, the construction, connection and restoration of the wall never ceased.The present Great Wall was largely built in the Ming Dynasty. The Badaling stretch, the best-preserved portion of the Ming Great Wall, was widely realized as the essence of the Ming Great Wall. Standing on the top of Badaling and looking to the distance, one will be amazed at the great wonder of the Wall.
In 1961, it was listed by the Chinese State Council as a key national historical heritage protection site. Later in 1988, it was nominated by the UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site.The Badaling Great Wall, which functioned as an important military barrier for the empire's capital, Beijing, was originally built by Emperor Hongzhi in 1505, and its construction continued until the reigns of the following two emperors Jiangjing and Wanli.
From ancient times, Badaling ,occupied an military important position. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring State Period, in an attempt to block the horsemen from the north, the Great Wall was built here by the states. Its layout and position had great influence on the Ming Great Wall over one thousand years later. According to the book ,The Night Talk in Changan, published in the Ming Dynasty, Badaling is a place where numerous roads meet, thus from here one can go in  any direction. Its name - Badaling- or literally "a hill from which one can go to 8 directions" (in China "8 directions" means all directions and places) well depicts the situation.

 

Pagodas , Bridges & Parks
Beijing contains several well-preserved pagodas and stone pagodas, such as the towering Pagoda of Tianning Temple, which was built during the Liao Dynasty from 1100–1120, and the Pagoda of Cishou Temple built in 1576 during the Ming Dynasty. Several historically important stone bridges are also located in Beijing, including the 12th century Lugou Bridge, the 17th century Baliqiao Bridge and the 18th century Jade Belt Bridge. The Beijing Ancient Observatory displays pretelescopic spheres dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan) is a popular scenic public park that consists of natural landscape areas as well as traditional and cultural relics. The Beijing Botanical Garden exhibits over 6,000 species of plants, including a variety of trees, bushes and flowers, and an extensive peony garden. The Taoranting Park, Chaoyang Park, Haidian Park and Zizhu Yuan are all popular recreational parks that consist of a variety of natural landscapes. The Beijing Zoo is a center of zoological research that also contains rare animals from various continents, including the giant panda of China.

 

Story of Peking Opera
It is regarded that Beijing opera was born when the "Four Great Anhui Troupes" came to Beijing in 1790. Beijing opera was originally staged for the court and came into public use later. In 1828, some famous Hubei troupes came to Beijing. They often jointly performed on the stage with Anhui troupes. The combination gradually formed Beijing opera's main melodies. Beijing opera is generally regarded as being fully formed by 1845. Although it is called Beijing opera (Beijing theatre style), its origins are in the southern Anhui and eastern Hubei, which share the same dialect of Xiajiang Mandarin (Lower Yangtze Mandarin). Beijing opera's two main styles; Xipi and Erhuang originated from Shanxi but developed in Anhui and Hubei. Xipi literally means 'Western Skin Puppet Show', referring to the puppet show that originated from Shaanxi province. Puppet Shows in China always involve singing. Much dialogue is also carried out in an archaic form of Standard Mandarin, in which Zhongyuan Guanhua (Zhongyuan Mandarin) dialects in Henan and Shaanxi are closest. This form of standard Mandarin is recorded in the book Zhongyuan Yinyun. It also absorbed music and arias from other operas and local Zhili musical art forms. Some scholars believe that the Xipi musical form was derived from the historic Qinqiang, while many conventions of staging, performance elements, and aesthetic principles were retained from Kunqu, the form that preceded it as court art.
 

Thus, Beijing opera is not actually a monolithic form, but rather a coalescence of many older forms. Beijing opera features four main types of performers. Performing troupes often have several of each variety, as well as numerous secondary and tertiary performers. With their elaborate and colorful costumes, performers are the only focal points on Beijing opera's characteristically sparse stage. They utilize the skills of speech, song, dance, and combat in movements that are symbolic and suggestive, rather than realistic. Above all else, the skill of performers is evaluated according to the beauty of their movements. Performers also adhere to a variety of stylistic conventions that help audiences navigate the plot of the production. The layers of meaning within each movement must be expressed in time with music. The music of Beijing opera can be divided into the Xipi and Erhuang styles. Melodies include arias, fixed-tune melodies, and percussion patterns. The repertoire of Beijing opera includes over 1,400 works, which are based on Chinese history, folklore and, increasingly, contemporary life. In recent years, Beijing opera has attempted numerous reforms in response to sagging audience numbers. These reforms, which include improving performance quality, adapting new performance elements, and performing new and original plays, have met with mixed success.

Beijing opera was initially an exclusively male pursuit. The Qianlong Emperor banned all female performers in Beijing in 1772. The appearance of women on the stage began unofficially during the 1870s. Female performers began to impersonate male roles and declared equality with men. They were given a venue for their talents when Li Maoer, himself a former Beijing opera performer, founded the first female Beijing opera troupe in Shanghai. By 1894, the first commercial venue showcasing female performance troupes appeared in Shanghai. This encouraged other female troupes to form, which gradually increased in popularity. As a result, theatre artist Yu Zhenting petitioned for the lifting of the ban after the founding of the Republic of China in 1911. This was accepted, and the ban was lifted in 1912, although male Dan continued to be popular after this period.

 

Beijing Teahouse Culture
Beijing teahouses epitomized the advantages of other local teahouses, and were noted for their great variety, complete functions, and rich and profound cultural aims. Historically, there were many kinds of Beijing teahouses, including Dachaguan (great teahouses), Qingchaguan (teahouses serving tea without refreshments), Shuchaguan (teahouses where storytelling was performed), Erhunpu (teahouses selling both tea and wine and dinners, Hongluguan (teahouses installed with red stoves) and Yechaguan (teahouses in the country). There were also innumerable tea stalls and booths. The teahouses became the meeting place for people of all sorts. It was more convenient for people to carry out activities in teahouses than in formal halls or restaurants, for it cost less money, and one felt more at ease meeting friends in a teahouse than at home.

Strangers without families could also relax in teahouses. Teahouses became popular because of the special composition of the population. Therefore, teahouses of various forms and with varied functions spread all over Beijing.

Teahouse culture has a profound impact on literature. Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties occupy an important place in the history of Chinese literature. However, unlike Western classical fiction, ancient Chinese novels, especially some full-length masterpieces, were not written solely by the writers, but were revised according to storytellers' scripts. They became the oral literature of the performers in teahouses or restaurants. Such masterpieces included The Romance of Three Kingdoms and Outlaws of the Marsh. Since ancient Chinese novels took root among the masses, they surely displayed a greater vitality than other literary works. Teahouse culture since the Song and Yuan Dynasties made a special contribution to the development of the novel, and Beijing Shuchaguan was the best evidence of the method of development.

Various Quyi (Chinese folk art forms) were performed in the Shuchaguan in the Tianqiao area; they included Meihua Dagu, Lihua Dagu, and storytelling in Beijing and Tangshan dialects with drum accompaniment. The stories were either taken from voluminous storytelling books or newly compiled in order to be fashionable and to adapt to the contemporary environment.

People drank tea in Shuchaguan to increase their historical knowledge, kill time and amuse themselves. Therefore, Shuchaguan were best suited to old people.  At present, there are increasing problems of the aged. A revival of the Shuchaguan would be a useful place for today's senior citizens.

Entertainment in Beijing's Qingchaguan and Qichaguan (teahouses in which people played chess):
Though shuchaguan had a strong atmosphere of folk culture, they were monotonous. There were many Qingchaguan in Beijing, providing places for people from all occupations to entertain themselves elegantly. Tea was served without refreshments in these teahouses. Most of them were simply furnished with elegant square tables and wooden chairs, and teacups with covers were used. In spring, summer and autumn, a shelter would be set outside or in the courtyard of the teahouse. The seats in the front shelter were for ordinary customers, while those in the room were for regular customers. Comfortable seats were set in the courtyard. Wooden signboards with characters such as maojian, yuqian, queshe, and dafang were hung in front of the gate or under the roof of the shelter to show that the teahouse was selling first-class tea. The teahouses opened at five every morning. Most of the customers were idlers, including the old and young survivors of the late Qing Dynasty, children of families in decline, and common people. Residents of old Peking were accustomed to getting up early to do exercises, which were called Uuzao. They would go for a walk in quiet places with their birds in cages, then do exercises by reed marshes or on the banks of the moat. When they and the birds breathed enough fresh air, they would return to the town and enter teahouses. They would hang the birdcages on a pole and drink tea while appreciating the birds' calls. The trained larks, babblers, hongdian, landian and other species could call in more than 10 ways, and imitate the cries of magpies, titmice, hawks, cuckoos, wild geese and babies. The old customers then talked about their experiences of cultivating tea and keeping pets, engaged in small talk, or commented on current events. They developed a unique method of integrating tea and nature. The shopkeepers of Qingchaguan helped well-known pet keepers to organize Chaniaohui (parties to appreciate both tea and birds) to solicit customers. They would send invitation cards on fancy stationery and red envelopes to old customers, and put up posters on the street. The pet keepers would go to the parties and old customers took pleasure in them, while teahouses could reap great profit. In winter, besides warming themselves and chatting in teahouses, customers liked to appreciate butterflies spreading their wings, and watch cricketfights, activities that added vitality to the bleak winter, and made their life more colorful. It was a unique scene in Beijing. In the afternoon, these old customers were replaced by businessmen or pedllers, who negotiated business at teahouses.  

There were also Qichaguan in Beijing where customers played chess. Qichaguan were simply furnished with timber or lumps of wood painted with chessboards, which were partly buried in the ground, or chessboards with benches on both sides. More than 10 customers would drink tea in a qichaguan while playing chess each afternoon. People of Beijing in old times, even the poor, had refined hobbies. Qichaguan was an example. When they played chess while drinking scented tea or other ordinary tea, the chessboard was like a battlefield of life, and they would temporarily forget about their sufferings. Because of this quality, tea was also called wangyoujun (Mr. Worry-free). 

People went to Yechaguan (teahouses in the country) and seasonal tea sheds for outings to appreciate beautiful gardens. People of Beijing in old times loved going for outings. They went out to enjoy the beautiful scenery in spring, in summer to appreciate the lotus flowers, in autumn the maple leaves and in winter the Western Hills shimmering with snow. Some old people loved the melon sheds, bean poles, vineyards and fishponds on the outskirts of the city, so Yechaguan appeared in these beautiful areas. For example, the Maizi Teashop at Chaoyangmenwai was established in a peaceful and secluded place surrounded by reeds and many ponds. Skillful fish farmers often went there to net water fleas. When the sun was sinking in the west, old men walked on crisscross footpaths between the fields, and gathered at the teahouse. The teahouse at Liupukang was surrounded by melon sheds and bean poles. Customers,while drinking tea, could appreciate sights such as the flowers of cucumbers and eggplants, and butterflies, just as Lu Fangweng (Lu You) had taken great pleasure in chatting about the cultivation of mulberries and hemps with old farmers. People recovered their original simplicity in such an environment. The Vineyard Teahouse at Chaoyangmenwai was close to a clear stream in the west, ling and tea ponds to the east and south and many grape trellises and towering old trees surrounded by low fences to the north. Scholars often went there to play chess, solve riddles or write poems.

People had social contacts in Dachaguan (great teahouses) with catering services. The old Beijing Dachaguan had various functions. They served tea and food, and provided excellent service to people in various trades, such as businessmen and scholars. Teahouse, the famous opera written by Lao She, described the model of the old Beijing dachaguan. The Lao She Teahouse at Qianmen has carried on the tradition and  it will be a good chance to experience the old and real Peking life in these teahouses.Dachaguan became popular because of their multiple functions and good service.