Peking: The Growing Metropolis of Communist China

Abstract

0 Q , 4pQ l m10 f U.S.S.R.t FOR some seven hundred years ..Miles U.S.S.R. Miles , '.,,' t Peking has been the capital of ,? eiMONGOLIA /' i China. Since the middle of the 740o .. .... Peking ' twelfth century this city at the \;3~ * Peking j J4 A-. CCHINA ( ? crossroads of the North China .' in _ C: L ^S:Plain, the Mongolian plateau, .NEPAL Nanking and the southern Manchurian NEPAL B Pli was ].'BHUTAN ,\x .:':'.: Plain was the favored site of the INDIA pAK./ iX& ruling dynasties. In number of -200 URM oa*^ years of service as the imperial .GEOGR.REV.,JULY,165 S V -'2 capital it ranked next to Ch'angFIG. 1 an and Lo-yang. It continued as capital until 1928, when Nanking was chosen by the Nationalist government, but in 1949 Peking became the administrative headquarters of Communist China. The present paper is an attempt to compare Peking with Nanking with respect to geographical location (Fig. i), to throw light on the multiple functions of the ancient capital of China in modern times, and to evaluate the geographical role of Peking as it relates to the nationwide political and economic reconstruction under the Communist regime.