BEIJING - PAGE 2
Date Modified: 06.28.2008
Content: Beijing - General Info and Links
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Area: 16,808 km2
Population: 14,930,000 (2004)
Metropolitan area: approx. 7.5 million
Density: 888/km2
GDP: CNY 428.3 billion (2004)
Per capita: CNY 28,700
Major nationalities: Han-96%, Manchu-2%,
Hui-2%, Mongol-0.3% (2000)
>>City layout
Beijing's 18 districts and counties are further subdivided
into 273 lower (third)-level administrative units at the township
level: 119 towns, 24 townships, 5 ethnic townships and 125
subdistricts.
>>Economy
In 2005, Beijing's nominal GDP was 681.45 billion RMB (about
84 billion USD), a year-on-year growth of 11.1% from the previous
year. Its per capita GDP was 44,969 RMB, an increase of 8.1%
from the previous year and nearly twice as much as in 2000.
Beijing's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were
worth 9.77 billion RMB, 210.05 billion RMB, and 461.63 billion
RMB. Urban disposable income per capita was 17,653 yuan, a
real increase of 12.9% from the previous year. Per capita
pure income of rural residents was 7,860 RMB, a real increase
of 9.6%. Per capita disposable income of the 20% low-income
residents increased 16.7%, 11.4 percentage points higher than
the growth rate of the 20% high-income residents. The Engel's
coefficient of Beijing's urban residents reached 31.8% in
2005 and that of the rural residents was 32.8%, declining
4.5 percentage points and 3.9 percentage points, respectively,
compared with 2000.
Beijing's real estate and automobile sectors continue to
bloom in recent years. In 2005, a total of 28.032 million
square metres of housing real estate was sold, for a total
of 175.88 billion RMB. The total number of automobiles registered
in Beijing in 2004 was 2,146,000, of which 1,540,000 were
privately-owned (a year-on-year increase of 18.7%).
The Beijing CBD, centered at the Guomao area, has been identified
as the city's new central business district, and is home to
a variety of corporate regional headquarters, shopping malls,
and high-end housing. The Beijing Financial Street, in the
Fuxingmen and Fuchengmen area, is a traditional financial
center. The Wangfujing and Xidan areas are major shopping
districts.
Zhongguancun, dubbed "China's Silicon Valley",
continues to be a major center in electronics- and computer-related
industries, as well as pharmaceuticals-related research. Meanwhile,
Yizhuang, located to the southeast of the urban area, is becoming
a new center in pharmaceuticals, IT, and materials engineering.
Urban Beijing is also known for being a center of pirated
goods and anything from the latest designer clothing to the
latest DVDs can be found in markets all over the city, often
marketed to expatriates and international visitors. Major
industrial areas include Shijingshan, located on the western
outskirts of the city. Agriculture is carried out outside
the urban area of Beijing, with wheat and maize (corn) being
the main crops. Vegetables are also grown in the regions closer
to the urban area in order to supply the city. The development
of Beijing continues to proceed at a rapid pace, and the vast
expansion of Bejing has created a multitude of problems for
the city. Beijing is known for its smog as well as the frequent
"power-saving" programs instituted by the government.
Citizens of Beijing as well as tourists frequently complain
about the quality of the water supply and the cost of the
basic services such as electricity and natural gas. The major
industrial areas outside of Beijing were ordered to clean
their operations or leave the Beijing area in an effort to
alleviate the smog that covers the city. Most factories, unable
to update, have moved and relocated to other cities such as
Xi'an, China.
>>Architecture
Three styles of architecture predominate in urban Beijing.
First, the traditional architecture of imperial China, perhaps
best exemplified by the massive Tian'anmen (Gate of Heavenly
Peace), which remains the PRC's trademark edifice, the Forbidden
City, and the Temple of Heaven. Next there is what is sometimes
referred to as the "Sino-Sov" style, built between
the 1950s and the 1970s, which tend to be boxy, bland, and
poorly made. Finally, there are much more modern architectural
forms °™ most noticeably in the area of the Beijing
CBD.
A bizarre and striking mix of both old and new styles of
architecture can be seen at the Dashanzi Art District, which
mixes 1950s-design with a blend of the new. The influence
of American urban form and social values in manifest in the
creation of Orange County, China, a suburban development about
one hour north of the city.
>>Demographics
The population of Beijing Municipality, defined as the total
number of people who reside in Beijing for 6 months or more
per year, was 15.38 million in 2005. 11.870 million people
in Beijing Municipality had Beijing hukou (permanent residence)
and the remainder were on temporary residence permits. In
addition, there is a large but unknown number of migrant workers
(min gong) who live illegally in Beijing without any official
residence permit (also termed hei renwhich means "black
people" or unregistered people). The population of Beijing's
urban core (city proper) is around 7.5 million.
Over 95% of Beijing's residents belong to the Han Chinese
majority. Smaller populations consisting of members of the
Manchu, Hui, and Mongol ethnic groups also call the city home.
In recent years there has been an influx of South Korean expatriates,
who live in Beijing predominantly for business and study,
and are concentrated in the Wangjing and Wudaokou areas. A
Tibetan high school exists for youth of Tibetan ancestry,
nearly all of whom have come to Beijing from Tibet expressly
for their studies.
A sizable international or expatriate community exists in
Beijing, mostly attracted by the highly growing foreign business
and trade sector, and many members live in the Beijing urban
area's densely populated northern, northeastern and eastern
sections. The southwest and southern parts of the Beijing
urban area are less densely populated.
>>Culture
People native to urban Beijing speak the Beijing dialect,
which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese.
Beijing dialect provides the basis for Standard Mandarin,
the standard Chinese language used in the People's Republic
of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and Singapore.
Rural areas of Beijing Municipality have their own dialects
akin to those of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing Municipality.
Beijing Opera, or Peking Opera (Jingju), is well-known throughout
the national capital. Commonly lauded as one of the highest
achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing Opera is performed
through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified
action sequences, such as gestures, movement, fighting and
acrobatics. Much of Beijing Opera is carried out in an archaic
stage dialect quite different from modern Standard Mandarin
and from the Beijing dialect; this makes the dialogue somewhat
hard to understand, and the problem is compounded if one is
not familiar with Chinese. As a result, modern theaters often
have electronic titles in Chinese and English.The Siheyuan
is a traditional architectural style of Beijing. A siheyuan
consists of a square housing compound, with rooms enclosing
a central courtyard. This courtyard often contains a pomegranate
or other type of tree, as well as potted flowers or a fish
tank. Siheyuans line Hutongs, or alleys, which connect the
interior of Beijing's old city. They are usually straight
and run east-to-west so that doorways can face north and south
for Feng Shui reasons. They vary in width °™ some
are very narrow, enough for only a few pedestrians to pass
through at a time.
Once ubiquitous in Beijing, siheyuans and hutongs are now
rapidly disappearing, as entire city blocks of hutongs are
leveled and replaced with high-rise buildings. Residents of
the hutongs are entitled to apartments in the new buildings
of at least the same size as their former residences. Many
complain, however, that the traditional sense of community
and street life of the hutongs cannot be replaced. Some particularly
historic or picturesque hutongs are being preserved and restored
by the government, with the objective that by the 2008 Olympics,
only these few will remain. One such example can be seen at
Nanchizi.
Mandarin cuisine is the local style of cooking in Beijing.
Peking Roast Duck is perhaps the most well-known dish. The
Manhan Quanxi ("Manchu-Han Chinese full banquet")
is a traditional banquet originally intended for the ethnic-Manchu
emperors of the Qing Dynasty; it remains very prestigious
and very expensive.
Teahouses are also common in Beijing. Chinese tea comes in
many varieties and some rather expensive types of Chinese
tea are said to cure an ailing body extraordinarily well.
The Jingtailan is a cloisonn®¶ metalworking technique
and tradition originating from Beijing, and one of the most
revered traditional crafts in China. Beijing lacquerware is
well known for the patterns and images carved into its surface.
The Fuling Jiabing is a traditional Beijing snack food, a
pancake (bing) resembling a flat disk with filling, made from
fu ling (Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf, or "tuckahoe"),
an ingredient common in traditional Chinese medicine.
>>Stereotypes
Beijingers are stereotypically held to be open, confident,
humorous, majestic in manner, enthusiastic about politics,
art, culture, or other "grand" matters, unconcerned
with thrift or careful calculation, and happy to take center
stage. They are also stereotypically aristocratic, arrogant,
laid back, disdainful of "provincials", always "lording
it over others", and strongly conscious of social class.
These stereotypes may have originated from Beijing's status
as China's capital for most of the past 800 years, and the
high concentration of officials and other notables in Beijing
that has resulted.
>>Transportation
With the growth of the city following economic reforms, Beijing
has evolved as an important transportation hub. Encircling
the city are five ring roads, nine expressways and city express
routes, eleven China National Highways, several railway routes,
and an international airport.
Rail
Beijing has two major railway stations: Beijing Railway Station
(or the central station) and Beijing West Railway Station.
Five other railway stations in Metropolitan Beijing handle
regular passenger traffic: Beijing East, Beijing North, Beijing
South, Fengtai, and Guang'anmen.
Beijing is a railway hub. There are railway lines from Beijing
to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Harbin, Baotou, Taiyuan, Chengde and
Qinhuangdao.
International trains, including lines to cities in Russia
and Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK), all run through Beijing.
Direct trains to Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR also depart from Beijing.
Construction on a Beijing-Tianjin high-speed rail began on
July 4, 2005, and is scheduled to be completed in 2007.
Roads and expressways
Beijing is connected via road links from all parts of China.
Nine expressways of China (with six wholly new expressways
under projection or construction) connect with Beijing, as
do eleven China National Highways. Within Beijing itself,
an elaborate network of five ring roads has developed, but
they appear more rectangular than ring-shaped. Roads in Beijing
often are in one of the four compass directions (unlike, for
example, Tianjin).
One of the biggest concerns with traffic in Beijing deals
with its apparently ubiquitous traffic jams. Traffic in the
city centre is often gridlocked, especially around rush hour.
Even outside of rush hour, several roads still remain clogged
up with traffic. Urban area ring roads and major through routes,
especially near the Chang'an Avenue area, are often clogged
up during rush hour.
Recently expressways have been extended (in some cases reconstructed
as express routes) into the territories within the 3rd Ring
Road. As they are either expressways or express routes, drivers
do not need to pass through intersections with traffic lights.
This may finally solve the difficulties in "hopping between
one ring and another".
Another problem is that public transportation is underdeveloped
(the subway system is presently minimal) and that even buses
are jam-packed with people around rush hour. Beijing was poorly
designed in terms of zoning and in terms of transportation
system. Compounding the problem is patchy enforcement of traffic
regulations, and road rage. Beijing authorities claim that
traffic jams may be a thing of a past come the 2008 Olympics.
The authorities have introduced several bus lanes where, during
rush hour, all vehicles except for public buses must keep
clear.
Chang'an Avenue runs east-west through the centre of Beijing,
past Tian'anmen. It is a major through route and is often
called the "First Street in China" by authorities.
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