一、北京是中华人民共和国的首都，中国的政治、文化和国内国际交往的中心，是世界历史文化名城和古都之一。早在70万年前，北京周口店地区就出现了原始人群落“北京人”。北京最初见于记载的名字为“蓟”。

Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, also the nation’s politics, culture and communication centre for both at home and abroad, is one of the historical cities and ancient capitals in the world. As early as 700,000 years ago, the primitive community “Peking person” came to exist in the Beijing Choukoution area. Beijing’s first recorded name is “Ji”(thistle).  

公元前1045年成为蓟、燕诸侯国的都城。从公元前221年秦始皇统一中国到公元937年，北京一直是中国北方的重镇和地方政权的都城。公元938年，统治中国北方的辽以北京（时称燕京）为陪都；以后，金、元、明、清各代都以此地为首都，前后达650多年。1949年10月1日中华人民共和国成立，北京成为新中国的首都。

In 1045BC, it became the capital city of “Ji”(thistle) and Yan( swallow) seigneur countries. Since 221BC when Qinshi Emperor unified China to 937AD, Beijing had long been an important town for the north and the capital city for the local authority. In 938AD, Liao, which ruled the northern part of China, took Beijing (called Yanjing at that time) as its alternate capital; Later, Jin(gold), Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasty, totally amounting to more than 650 years, all made Beijing as their capital. On October 1, 1949 when the People's Republic of China was set up, Beijing became the new China's capital.

旅游景点：

1、故宫———北京故宫，又名紫禁城。它坐落于北京市中心，为明、清两代的皇宫，故宫是明、清两朝最大的皇家处理政务和生活起居场所，是明代皇帝朱棣，以南京宫殿为蓝本，从大江南北征调能工巧匠和役使百万夫役，历经14年(公元1407—1420年)时间建成的。平面呈长方形，南北长961米，东西宽753米，占地面积72万多平方米。城墙环绕，周长3428米，城墙高7．9米，底部宽8．62米，上部宽6．66米，上部外侧筑雉牒，内侧砌宇墙。城墙四角各有一座结构精巧的角楼。城外有一条宽52米、长3800米的护城河环绕，构成完整的防卫系统。宫城辟有四门，南面有午门，为故宫正门，北有神武门(玄武门)，东面东华门，西为西华门。

Scenic spot:

1. The Imperial Palace - - - Beijing Imperial Palace bears the Forbidden City as another name. Located in the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City is the imperial palace for the Ming and Qing Dynasty, which served as the largest location for handling government affairs and daily lives. Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhuli took the Nanjing palace as the main source for the Forbidden City, calling up the skilled craftsman and millions of labors from all over the country, and spending 14 years (the 1407AD-1420 AD) in finishing the project. Its plane shapes rectangle, with 961 meters long from north to south, 753 meters in width and taking up an area of more than 720,000 square meters. It is surrounded by the city wall of 3428 meters of perimeter, 7.9 meters high, with its base 8.62 meters wide, upside 6.66 meters wide. Its outboard of the upside is built by high wall which was used to denfend enemies and the inside built by the short wall which was used to prevent people falling off the wall. There is a watchtower in structural exquisite in each of the four corners of city wall. Outside the city there encircles a moat of 52 meters wide and 3800 meters long, making up an integrity defence system. There are four gates of the imperial city. In its south is Wu Gate, which is its main entrance, in the north being the Shenwu Gate (the Xuanwu Gate), in east being Donghua Gate, and Xihua Gate for the west.

2、长城———长城修筑的历史悠久，工程雄伟浩大，是世界少有的奇迹。长城东西南北交错，绵延伏于中国辽阔的土地上。它好像一条巨龙，翻越巍巍群山，穿过茫茫草原，跨过浩瀚的沙漠，奔向苍茫的大海。根据历史文献记载，有20多个诸侯国家和封建王朝修筑过长城，若把各个时代修筑的长城加起来，大约有10万里以上。其中秦、汉、明3个朝代所修长城的长度都超过了1万里。现在新疆、甘肃、宁夏、陕西、内蒙古、山西、河北、北京、天津、辽宁、吉林、黑龙江、河南、山东、湖北、湖南等省、市、自治区都有古长城、峰火台的遗迹。其中仅内蒙古自治区的长城就达3万多里。

2. the Great Wall - - - the Great Wall is the world’s rare miracle for its glorious constructional history and grand vast project. With its east, west, south and north interlocking, The Great Wall bends down on Chinese vast land. Like a large dragon, it surmounts lofty hills, traversing boundless grassland, bridging over the vast desert, rushing towards to the boundless sea. According to historical document record, more than 20 feudal lord countries and the feudal dynasties had constructed the Great Wall, which accounted to more than 100,000 miles if the length was adding of each time. Of all those dynasties, the length of the Great Wall Qin, Han and Ming built is more than 10,000 miles respectively. Now the ancient Great Wall and the balefire platform vestige are persevered in cities ,provinces, and autonomous regions like Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan,. ect. Of these areas, the Great Wall in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in sole amounts to more than 30,000 miles long。

3、天安门广场———天安门广场位于北京市中心，南北长880米，东西宽500米，面积达44万平方米，可容纳100万人举行盛大集会，是当今世界上最大的城市广场。

3, the Tiananmen Square - - - the Tiananmen Square is located in the center of Beijing city. It is 880 meters long from north to south，and 500 meters wide. Its area amounts to 440,000 square meters. It can hold 1,000,000 people to have the grand assembly. Now it’s the biggest city square in the world.

4、颐和园———颐和园是中国现存规模最大，保存最完整的皇家园林，为全国重点文物保护单位。它位于北京西郊海淀区，距北京城区15千米。
颐和园的前身乃为北京三山五园中的清漪园，后在英法联军火烧圆明园时同遭严重破坏，光绪十四年(1888年)慈禧挪用海军军费修复此园，改为“颐和园”。 1900年，颐和园又遭八国联军洗劫，慈禧从西安回到北京后，再次动用巨款修复此园。颐和园规模宏大，总面积达294公顷，主要有万寿山和昆明湖两部分组成，其中水面占四分之三。慈禧大力修复此园的目的乃为了避暑和颐养天年，她独独看中了这块具有“万寿”名称的宝地。从1903年起，慈禧大部分时间在这里度过，由于慈禧常需在这里接见臣僚，处理朝政，为此在园的前部专门建置了一个宫殿区和生活居住区，所以颐和园是一个兼具“宫”，“苑”双重功能的大型皇家园林。

4, the Summer Palace - - - the Summer Palace is the largest well preserved imperial botanical garden existing in China now. Being the nation key cultural relic preservation organ, the Summer Palace is located in Haidian District in western suburbs of Beijing, 15 kilometers away from the city town.

The Summer Palace used to be the Qingyi garden of three mountains five gardens in Beijing. It was later severely destroyed by the England and France allied armies’ burning down the Yuanming Park. In Guangxu 14 (1888) Cixi diverted the navy military expenses to repair this garden, and renamed “the Summer Palace”. In 1900, the Summer Palace suffered looting again by Eight Power Expeditionary Force. Cixi spent a great sum of money repairing it again after her return to Beijing from Xi'an. The Summer Palace of large scale with a total area of 294 hectares, mainly consists of two parts: Wanshou Mountain and the Kunming Lake, of which the water occupies 75 percent. Cixi’s repairing this garden was to spend the summer vacation and enjoyed natural lifespan. She only took a fancy on the name of the precious place “Wangshou” with the meaning “the long life”. From 1903, Cixi spent most of her time here. As she often needed to receive the civil and military officials and dealt with royal government, a palace area and the life community were specially established in the front part of the garden. Therefore the Summer Palace was a large-scale imperial botanical garden with dual function concurrently of “the palace” and “park”.