北京中英文介绍

Beijing 北京

Beijing is the capital of China and a fascinating mixture of the old and new. With an area of 16,808 sq. kilometers, it is today the political, cultural and administrative center of the People's Republic of China which was founded in 1949, the home of more than 13.8 million citizens and the seat of government.

1 北京作为中国的首都是一个新旧交融，魅力无限的地方。今天的北京占地16,808平方公里，是中华人民共和国（建于1949年）的政治、文化和行政管理的中心，是1,380多万北京市民的家园和中央政府的所在地。

2 Beijing has been in existence as a settlement for more than 3,000 years, although the remains of "Peking Man" show that human life existed in this part of China half a million years ago. It has been a center of power under the Mongols, the Ming, the Manchu and now the People's Republic of China for a period spanning almost seven hundred years.

2 尽管“北京人”的遗骨表明早在50万年以前已有人类生存于此，北京作为人类的居住地已超过了3000多年。它是蒙古、明朝、满族直到现在的中华人民共和国的权力中心，跨越了近700年的历史。

3 Being one of the few inland capitals of the world not built on a major river, it owes its long preeminence to its strategic geographical

position. Lying on the northwestern fringe of the Great North China Plain, Beijing serves as a gateway to the Inner Mongolian steppes in the north, the Shanxi plateau in the west and, through the easternmost pass of the Great Wall at Shanhaiguan, to north-east China.

3 作为世界上少数未傍主要河道而建的内陆首都之一，北京将自己长期显赫的历史归功于战略性的地理位置。由于它位于中国华北平原的西北端，北京是向北进入内蒙古大草原，向西进入山西高原和穿过长城最东部的山海关，进入东北的门户。

4 Beijing first achieved prominence during the Warring States Period (476 BC—221 BC), when it became the capital of the Kingdom of Yan and was called Ji (meaning "reeds", because of the marshy nature of the terrain). The Mongolian emperor, Kublai Khan, renamed it Dadu (great capital) when he made it the base for his Yuan Dynasty (1271—1368), but the first emperor of the succeeding Ming Dynasty moved his court to Nanjing (Nanking), where it remained until the third emperor returned the royal seat to Beijing.

4 北京第一次繁盛是在战国时期（公元前476-221），那时它是燕国的首都，又称冀（意思是“芦苇”，因为当时四周是沼泽地）。当蒙古皇帝—忽必烈，将元朝（公元后1264）建都于此时，改名为大都（伟大的首都），但是随后明朝的第一位皇帝迁都至南京，直到第三位皇帝时期才又迁到北京。

5 Hence the name, Beijing, meaning "northern capital", was used as opposed to Nanjing, which means "southern capital". Since then, Beijing has always been the capital of the nation, except for a brief period during the civil war in the first half of this century, when Chiang Kai-shek's commanding army again moved the government to Nanjing.

5 北京因此而得名，意指“北部京都”，与南京，即“南部京都”相对。从那以后，北京一直是首都，除了本世纪上半叶，国内战争这段时期，蒋介石执掌军队，将政府迁往了南京。

6 It was from the rostrum in Beijing's Tian'anmen Square that, on October 1, 1949, the late Chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China.

6 1949年10月1日，在天安门城楼上，已故的毛泽东主席正式宣布中华人民共和国的成立。

7 The historic Tian'anmen rostrum is not only the symbolic heart of China, but also the key to Beijing. The whole city radiates out from it —or more exactly, from the grand royal compound of the Forbidden City —the old imperial palace —on the northern side of the square. The original city of Beijing was planned and for a time developed in such a way that the Forbidden City remained at the true center of the capital. Old meets new everywhere in Beijing —the ancient Forbidden City is overlooked by skyscrapers, the famous Great Wall pass north of the city