Page 40 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Beijing

38 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Moments in History

500,000 BC:
1 The Venetian traveler Marco
Peking Man
Hunts and Gathers Polo was dazzled by the
imperial palace:“No man
Unearthed in the 1920s from on earth could design
a cave at Zhoukoudian, anything superior to it.”
30 miles (45 km) south-
1403–20:
west of Beijing, 40-odd 4
fossilized bones and Construction
primitive implements Kublai Khan, of the of the Forbidden
were identified as the Mongol Yuan dynasty City
remains of Peking Man The Ming emperor
(Homo erectus Pekinensis), who lived Yongle (r. 1403–24) destroyed the
in the vicinity over 500,000 years ago. palaces of his Mongol predecessors
in order to rebuild the city, which
1215: Genghis Khan
2 he renamed Beijing (Northern
Sacks Zhongdu
Capital). He is credited with laying
The future Beijing was developed as the foundations for the city as it is
an auxiliary capital under the Liao today, and the Forbidden City and
(907–1125) and Jin (1115–1234) Temple of Heaven began to take
dynasties, at which time it was shape during his reign.
known as Zhongdu. In 1215 it was
1900: Boxer Rebellion
invaded and razed by a Mongol army 5
led by the fearsome Genghis Khan. Western powers, frustrated by
the reluctance of the Chinese to open
Late 13th Century:
3 up to foreign trade, put the imperial
Marco Polo Visits
court under pressure, eventually going
Under the Mongol Yuan dynasty’s first to war to protect their trade in opium.
emperor, Kublai Khan (r. 1260–94), In 1900, championed by the Empress
the city became known as Khanbalik, Cixi, a band of rebels known as the
and was one of twin capitals – the Boxers attacked Beijing’s Foreign
other was Yuanshangdu, or Xanadu – Legation Quarter. A joint eight-nation
of the largest empire ever known. army had to be sent to lift the siege.

Violent clashes during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900

Eyewitness Travel – Top 10 series LAYERS PRINTED:
Two-column, 8.5pt grid “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v.1.9)
038-039_Top_10_Beijing.indd 38 27/06/2017 14:32
Date 24th June 2015
Size 100mm x 191mm