Some half a million years ago，Beijing man lived in Zhoukoudian，in the southwestern suburbs of Beijing. The climate of that time was warmer and more humid than it is today. Forests and lakes in the area supported large numbers of living creatures. The fossil remains of Beijing man，his stone tools and evidence of use of fire，as well as later tools of 18 000 years ago，bone needles and article of adornment from the age of Upper Cave Man are the earliest cultural relics on record in China today.
大约50万年前，北京人居住在北京西南郊的周口店。那时的气候比现在的更温暖更潮湿，当地的森林湖泊也促进了大量生物的成长。北京人的化石遗骸，他们的石头工具和用火痕迹，以及后来大约18 000年前用过的工具，还有山顶洞人时期用过的骨针和装饰品都是中国如今史料记载的最早的文化遗物。
A city plan was first laid out in the Yuan Dynasty. Yet only after extensive reconstruction during the Ming and Qing，did the city emerge as an architectural masterpiece fit to serve as the capital of the Chinese empire. A north-south axis bisects the city with the Imperial Palace was known as Danei(The Great within).
北京的城市规划始于元朝。然而，直到明朝和清朝年间人兴上木、整修重建之后，城市才初现出适合成为中国王朝首都的杰出建筑。一道南北向的中心轴把城市一分为二，其皇宫被称作大内。

In the Ming Dynasty，it was renamed the Forbidden City(Zijincheng)，and more recently it has come to be called the Palace Museum(Gugong Bowuyuan).Designed with thousands of halls and gates arranged symmetrically around a north-south axis，its dimensions and luxuriance are a fitting symbol of the power and greatness of traditional China.
到了明朝，皇宫被更名为紫禁城国。近年来它又开始被称为故宫博物院，围绕着一个南北向的中心轴，数千个厅堂、门落对称地排列着，其宏大的规模和奢华的装饰都体现了古代中国权力和威严的象征。
After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911，China fell prey to the Northern Warlords and Kuomintang，Beijing suffered the same fate as the rest of China，hobbling along like an old camel without a sense of direction. The Chinese People's Liberation Army formally entered Beijing on January 31 1949，opening a new chapter in the long history of the city. It was in Tian'anmen Square on October 1st，1949，that Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China，with Beijing as its capital.
1911年清朝崩溃之后，中国又落人北方军阀和国民党的虎口。与中国其他地方一样，北京也惨遭厄运，像一只没头没脑的老骆驼一样蹒跚前行。1949年1月31日，中国人民解放军正式进人北京，在城市悠久的史册上翻开了新的篇章。1949年10月1日，毛泽东主席在天安门广场郑重宣告了中华人民共和国的成立，并以北京为首都。