Beijing (Peking) city (state capital), history - - Pictures
Settlement in the vicinity of modern Beijing traces back to 3000 BC or earlier. Its location on the northern flank of the Huabei Pingyuan (North China Plain) was crucial as a geographic and political intersection between the settled farming populations of the Han Chinese to the south and west and the nomadic tribal groups to the north, northeast, and northwest. An administrative capital was built here during the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (1045?-256 BC).
In the 10th century AD the Khitan Mongols from the northeast conquered part of north China and established their southern capital on the site of present-day Beijing. Early in the 12th century they were defeated by the Jurchen who established the Jin (Chin) dynasty and rebuilt the city on a larger scale.
