History Of Ancient Beijing

Several million years ago, Peking man lived in Zhoukoudian, in the southwestern suburbs of Beijing. The weather was warmer and more humid than it today. Forests and lakes in the area supported large numbers of living creatures. The fossil remains of Peking man, his stone tools and evidence of use of fire, as well as later tools of 18,000 years ago, bone needles and article of adornment from the age of Upper Cave Man are the earliest cultural relics on record in China today.

Five thousand years ago, settlements to the southwest of Beijing were thriving on basic agriculture and animal husbandry. Story has it that the legendary Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) battled against the tribal leader Chiyou in the "wilderness of the prefecture of Zhuo."Zhuolu, which is the site of the first metropolis in the area. Yellow Emperor's successor, Emperor Yao, was said to established a legendary capital Youdu.

Early in the third century BC, the first Emperor of Qin defeated six states and unifed China. The city of Ji was named administrative center of Guangyang Commandery, one of 36 prefectures in China's first feudal empire. For 10 centuries, through to the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Ji remained a military center and the object power struggles. During the time of the Tang Dynasty, (581-618), Ji was little different from any other large big cities. Several centuries later, however, when the Tang was nearing a state of collapse, the Qidans (Khitans) came from the upper reaches of the Liaohe River and moved south to occupy Ji and make it their second capital. They called the city Nanjing (Southern Capital) or Yanjing. Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) carried out reconstruction projects and built palaces, which were used as strongholds from which the Qidans set out to conquer the central plains of China.

later on, the Nuzhen (Jurchen) conquered the Liao and established the Jin Dynasty, In 1153, Wan Yanliang moved the Jin capital from Huiningfu in present day Liaoning Province to Yanjing and renamed it Zhongdu (Central Capital) as a challenge to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), which had its capital at Lin'an (present day Hangzhou). Before the ascension of Wan Yanliang to the throne, the city of Yanjing had changed little from the Liao period.
The rebuilding of the new city began in 1151 with expansion to the east, west and south.The construction of Dadu began in 1267 and ended in 1293, extending throughout the entire period of Kublai Khan's rule. The magnificent palaces of the Jin capital Zhongdu were destroyed by fire during the dynastic turnover from the Jin to the Yuan. When the capital was rebuilt, the original site of Zhongdu was replaced by a larger rectangular area centered in a beautiful lake region in the northeastern suburbs.

As the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Dadu enjoyed great fame in the 13th century world. The envoys and traders from Europe, Asia and Africa who paid visits to China were astounded by the splendor and magnificence of Dadu. Marco Polo's desc ription of the palaces of Cambaluc, as the called Khanbalig, us most famous of all:
"You must know that it is the greatest palace that ever was The roof is very lofty, and the walls of the palace are all covered with gold and silver. They are adorned with dragons, beasts and birds, knights and idols, and other such things The Hall of the Palace is so large that 6,000 people could easily dine there, and it is quite a marvel to see how many rooms there are besides. The building is altogether so vast, so rich and so beautiful, that no man on earth could design anything superior to it. The outside of the roof is all colored with vermilion and yellow and green and blue and other hues, which are fixed with a varnish so fine and exquisite that they shins like crystal, and lend a resplendent luster to the palace as seen for a great way around." The new Dadu was a rectangular city more than 30 kilometers in circumference. In the later years of Kublai Khan's rule, the city population consisted of 100,000 households or roughly 500,000 people. The layout was the result of uniform planning, the broader streets all 24 paces wide, the narrow lanes half this width. The regular chessboard pattern created an impression of relaxed orderliness.
On August 2, 1368, Ming troops seized Dadu and renamed it Beiping (Northern Peace). Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), however, made Nanjing his first capital.When the Manchu rulers built the Qing Dynasty in 1644, they began to build the most famous of Yuanmingyuan. Construction over the course of an entire century, the imposing columned palaces and open-air pavilions blended with the serenity of well planned gardens to create a masterpiece of garden architecture unrivaled in the history of China.
During that time, BEIJING TONG REN TANG is a famous time-honored brand in traditional Chinese medicine industry. It was founded at the year of 1669 during the eight Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty.TRT had been designated to provide medicines for the royal pharmacy of the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty for a duration of eight generations of Qing emperor, a total of 188 years. TRT people have been adhering to the full significance of the handed-down TRT’s commandment: no manpower shall be spared, no matter how complicated the procedures of pharmaceutical production are；and no material shall be reduced, no matter how much the cost is. TRT has established the self-discipline awareness with the motto that we shall do things with our sincerity and trustworthiness even without supervision from others, With and the products of TRT enjoy a high prestige at home and abroad and are sold to over 40 countries and regions.
A city plan was first laid out in the Yuan Dynasty. Yet only after extensive reconstruction during the Ming and Qing (1644-1911), did the city emerge as an architectural masterpiece fit to serve as the capital of the Chinese empire.In the Ming, it was renamed the Forbidden City, and more recently it has come to be called the Palace Museum. Designed with thousands of halls and gates arranged symmetrically around a north south axis, its dimensions and luxuriance are a fitting symbol of the power and greatness of traditional China.