The Chinese phrase “Four Great Ancient Capitals of China” traditionally refers to Beijing, Luoyang, Nanjing, and Xi’an. After the 1920s as more discoveries were made, other historical capitals were added to the list. The phrase “Seven Ancient Capitals of China” introduced later on, also includes Kaifeng (added in the 1920s as the fifth ancient capital), Hangzhou (became the sixth ancient capital in the 1930s), and Anyang (after archaeologists’ proposal in 1988, it became the seventh ancient capital); in 2004 the China Ancient Capital Society officially added Zhengzhou as the eighth thanks to archaeological finds there.
Beijing
There were cities in the vicinities of Beijing by the 1st millennium BC, and the capital of the State of Yan , one of the powers of the Warring States Period, was established at Ji , southwest of contemporary Beijing.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, only small towns existed in this area. Numerous ancient poets came here to mourn the lost city, as testified by their compositions.
In 936, the Later Jin Dynasty (936-947) of northern China ceded a large part of its northern frontier, including contemporary Beijing, to the Khitan Liao Dynasty in the 10th century. In 938 the Liao Dynasty set up a secondary capital in what is now Beijing, and called it Nanjing (the Southern Capital).In 1125, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty annexed Liao, and in 1153 moved its capital to Liao’s Nanjing, calling it Zhongdu , or “the Central Capital”. Zhongdu was situated in what is now the area centred around Tianningsi, slightly to the southwest of central Beijing.
Mongol forces burned Zhongdu to the ground in 1215 and rebuilt its own “Grand Capital”, Dadu , to the north of the Jin capital in 1267, which was the true beginning of contemporary Beijing.
In 1403, the 3rd Ming emperor Zhu Di moved the Ming capital from Nanjing to Beijing. Beijing during the Ming Dynasty took its current shape, and the Ming-era city wall served as the walls to the city until modern times.
The Forbidden City was constructed soon after that (1406-1420), followed by the Temple of Heaven (1420), and numerous other construction projects. Tian’anmen, which has become a state symbol of the People’s Republic of China and is featured on its emblem, was burned down twice during the Ming Dynasty and the final reconstruction was carried out in 1651.
After the Manchus overthrew the Ming Dynasty and established the Qing Dynasty in its place, Beijing remained China’s capital throughout the Qing period.
Between 1928 and 1949, it was known as Peiping , literally “Northern Peace”. The name was changed, with the removal of the element meaning “capital” (jing or king ), to reflect the fact that, with the Kuomintang government having established its capital in Nanking (Nanjing), Peking was no longer the capital of China, and that the warlord government based in Peking was not legitimate.
On January 31, 1949, during the Chinese Civil War , Communist forces entered Peiping without a fight. On October 1st of the same year, the Communist Party of China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, announced in Tian’anmen the creation of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. Just a few days earlier, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference decided that Beiping would be the capital of the PRC, and that its name be changed back to Beijing.
Following the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly.
Luoyang
Luoyang is regarded as cradle of the Chinese civilization. The city was constructed by the Duke of Zhou in the 11th century BC and became the capital of the Zhou Dynasty since 770 BC. In 25 AD, Luoyang became the capital of Eastern Han Dynasty. Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty were also established in Luoyang. For several centuries, Luoyang was the gravity center of China.
In 68 AD, the White Horse Temple, first Buddhist temple in China, was founded in Luoyang. The temple still exists, albeit the architecture is of later origin, mainly from the 1500s. White Horse Temple is located 12km east of the contemporary Luoyang.
In 493 AD the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital from Datong to Luoyang and started the construction of the artificial Longmen Caves. More than 30,000 Buddhist statues from the time of this dynasty have been found in the caves. The Longmen Grottoes were listed by the UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites in November 2000.
Guanlin is a series of temples that have been built in honor of a hero of the Three Kingdoms Period, Guan Yu, close to the grottoes to the south of the city. Luoyang also has a reputation as a cultivation center for peony.
Nanjing
Located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yangtze River Delta economic zone, Nanjing had been the capital of China for six dynasties. Nanjing has always been one of China’s most important cities.
According to the legend, Fu Chai, the Lord of the State of Wu, founded the first city, Yecheng in today’s Nanjing area in 495 BC.
Nanjing first became a capital in 229 AD, where Sun Quan of the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period. After the invasion of the Five Hu, the noble and wealthy of Jin Dynasty escaped across the Yangtze River and established Nanjing as the capital, which was then called Jiankang. Since then it remained as the capital of southern China during the North-South Division period, until Sui Dynasty reunified China and destroyed the entire city, turning it into farmland.
The city was reconstructed during late Tang Dynasty and was again made the capital by the short-lived Southern Tang Kingdom (937-975). Jiankang’s industry burgeoned and thrived during Song Dynasty when Mongolians further consolidated the city’s status as a hub of the textile industry.
After successfully emerging as the winner during the warlords division period at the end of Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of Ming Dynasty, established the city again as the capital of China in 1368, for the first time adopting the modern name, Nanjing, for the city. He constructed what was the largest city in the world during that time, and it took 200,000 laborers 21 years to finish the project. The present day city wall of Nanjing was mainly built during that time, and it is the longest surviving city wall in the world.
During the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), the Nanjing area was known as Jiangning and served as the seat of government for the Liangjiang Viceroy. Nanjing was the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid-19th century, and was renamed as Tianjing (Heaven’s Capital).
In 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen led a successful democratic revolution to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and founded the Republic of China, making Nanjing its capital. In 1928, the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-Shek again established Nanjing as the capital of China.
In 1937, Japanese army occupied Nanjing, a horrible massacre was carried out by the occupying force in the city, and the estimated death figure is 300,000. On April 23, 1949, The People’s Liberation Army captured Nanjing. Nanjing has remained the provincial capital of Jiangsu until today.
Being one of the four ancient capitals of China, Nanjing has always been a cultural center attracting intellectuals from all over the country. In Tang-Song period, Nanjing was a place where poets gathered and composed poems reminiscence of its luxurious past; in Ming and Qing dynasties, the city was the official Imperial Examination center for the Jiangnan region, again acting as a hub where different thoughts and opinions converged and thrived.
Today, with long cultural tradition and strong support from local educational institutions, Nanjing is commonly viewed as a “city of culture” and one of the most pleasant cities to live in Chinna.
Xi’an
Xi’an was the capital of 13 dynasties such as Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang. Xi’an is the eastern end of the Silk Road. The city has more than 3,100 years of history.
The Zhou Dynasty established its capital in Feng and Hao between the late 11th century BC and 770 BC, both located west of contemporary Xi’an.
The Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC) constructed its capital in the north shore of Wei River, which was burned by Xiang Y at the end of the dynasty.
In 202 BC, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, established Chang’an County as his capital; his first palace Changle Palace was built across the river from the ruin of the Qin capital. This is traditionally regarded as the founding date of Chang’an and Xi’an.
Construction of the first city wall of Chang’an began in 194 BC. The wall measured 25.7 km in length, 12-16 m in thickness at the base. The area within the wall was about 36 km2.
In 582 AD, Emperor of the Sui Dynasty ordered a new capital to be built southeast of the Han capital, called Daxing (great excitement). It consisted of three sections: the palace, the imperial city, and the civilian section. The total area within the wall was 84 km2. The main street Zhuque Avenue measured 155 m in width. It was the largest city in the world. The city was renamed Chang’an (everlasting peace) in the Tang Dynasty.
In the 7th century, Buddhist monk Xuan Zang, well-known as Tang San Zang in China, established a sizeable translation centre after returning from India with Sanskrit scriptures. In 652 AD, construction of Da Yan Pagoda (Great Wild Goose Pagoda) began. It measured 64.5 m in height. This pagoda was constructed for the storage of the translation of the Buddhist Sutra obtained from India by the monk Xuan Zang.
The end of the Tang Dynasty in 904 brought destruction to Chang’an. Only a small area continued to be occupied after the destruction.
In 1370, the Ming Dynasty built a new wall to protect a much smaller city of 12 km2. The wall measures 11.9 km in circumference, 12 m in height, and 15-18 m in thickness at the base.
This city was the site of the Xi’an Incident in 1936 during World War II. The Xi’an Incident brought the Communist Party of China and Kuomintang to a truce so the two forces could concentrate on fighting against Japanese invaders.
Historically, Xi’an has been one of the most important cities in the world. The culture of Xi’an is inherited from the traditions of one of the worldÕs earliest civilizations.
Kaifeng
Kaifeng is formerly known as Bianliang . In 364 BC, the state of Wei during the Warring States Period founded a city called Daliang as its capital in this area. During this period, the first of many canals in the area was constructed; it linked a local river to the Yellow River. When the State of Wei was conquered by the Qin, Kaifeng was destroyed and abandoned.
In 781 (Tang Dynasty), a new city was reconstructed and named Bian. Bian was the capital of the Later Liang (907-923), Later Jin (936-946), Later Han (947-950), and Later Zhou (950-960) of the Five Dynasties Period. The Song Dynasty made Bian its capital when it overthrew the Later Zhou in 960, and shortly afterward, they further expanded the city. Kaifeng reached its peak of importance in the 11th century, when it was a commercial and industrial center at the intersection of four major canals. This period ended in 1127, when the city fell to Jurchen invaders and came subsequently under the rule of the Jin Dynasty.
In 1642, Kaifeng was flooded by the Ming army with water from the Yellow River to prevent the peasant rebel Li Zicheng from taking over. Under the celebrated Qing emperor Kangxi (1662),
Kaifeng was rebuilt. However, another flooding occurred in 1841, followed by another reconstruction in 1843, which produced the contemporary Kaifeng as we know it.
The famous painting Qingming Scroll is believed by some to portray the daily life in Kaifeng. The painting, of which several versions are extant, is attributed to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) artist Zhang Zeduan.
Hangzhou
The city of Hangzhou was founded about 2,200 years ago during the Qin Dynasty. It was the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom from 907 to 978 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Leaders of Wuyue were noted patrons of the arts, and especially of Buddhism and associated temple architecture and artwork.
Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty from the early 12th century, and was known as Lin’an. It served as the seat of the imperial government, a center of trade and entertainment, and the nexus of the main branches of the civil service. During that time, the city was the gravity centre of Chinese civilization as what used to be considered the “central China” in the north was taken by the Jin, an ethnic minority dynasty. Numerous philosophers, politicians, and men of literature, including some of the most celebrated poets in Chinese history such as Su Shi, Lu You, and Xin Qiji came here to live.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, commercial expansion, an influx of refugees from the conquered north, and the growth of the official and military establishments, led to a corresponding population increase, and the city developed well outside its 9th century ramparts. The Venetian Marco Polo visited Hangzhou in the late 13th century and referred to the city as “beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world”.
Hangzhou is renowned for its historic relics and natural beauty. It has been ranked as one of the ten most scenic cities in China. One of Hangzhou’s most popular sights is the West Lake. The lake covers an area of 60 km2 and includes some of Hangzhou’s most famous historic and scenic places, such as historical pagodas, cultural sites, as well as the natural beauty of the lake and hills. In 1089, Su Shi constructed a 2.8 km long dike across the West Lake, which Qing Emperor Qianlong considered particularly attractive in the early morning of the spring time.
Tea is produced on the outskirts of town at Longjing or Dragon Well. It is among the only remaining places where tea is still baked by hand and is said to produce one of the finest green teas in all of China.
Further, Hangzhou is known for its artistic creations, such as silk, umbrellas, and folding fans.
Anyang
Anyang is a city with a history of over 3,000 years and is one of the key birthplaces of Chinese ancient culture. Here are the primitive caves of 25,000 years ago, the overlapping stratums of the Yangshao Culture, the Longshan Culture and the Xiaotun Culture, the memorial mausoleums of ancient Emperor Zhuan Xu (and Emperor Ku) over 4,000 years ago, the first library of inscriptions on bones of tortoise shells (oracle bones).
Located about 2 km northwest to Anyang City, Yin Ruins is listed as one of the World Heritage Sites. It was once the capital of the Shang Dynasty 3,300 years ago and is the first capital ruins with a historical record confirmed by oracles and archaeological excavations). “Yin” was the ancient name for the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC).
