Beijing lies in the north of the North China Plain, at 39¡ã56¡äN and 116¡ã20¡äE. it neighbors the Tianjin Municipality in the east, and borders Hebei Province on three sides-the north, west and south. The terrain of the Beijing area slopes from the northwest to the southeast. Mountains snake round the citys north, west and northeast, while the southeast part of the city is a plain that slopes gently toward the coast of the Bohai Sea. The Yongding, Chaobai and Juma rivers and the north section of the Grand Cannel crisscross the area under Beijings jurisdiction. Most of the rivers originate from mountainous areas in the northwest, cut through mountains and zigzag through the plain in the southeast before emptying into Bohai Sea.

Beijing belongs to the warm temperate zone with a semi-humid climate. It has four distinctive seasons, with short springs and autumns while summers and winters are always long. Annual temperatures average 12.8¡æ. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of -6.4¡æ,and July, the hottest with an average temperature of 29.6¡æ. The annual precipitation s measured at 371.1mm, and the frost-free period is 196 days.

Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China. It covers 16,807.8 square kilometers. Mountainous areas occupy 10,417.5 square kilometers, accounting for 62% of the citys landmass. The rest, 6390.3 square kilometers or 38% of the total, are flatland. The municipality governs 14 urban districts and 4 rural counties.

Abbreviation: Jing
Area: 16,800 square km
Population: 11 million

BEIJING is home to the Peking Man, one of the earliest human species that existed some 500,000 years ago. Historic records and archeological findings prove that as a city, Beijing dates to more than 3,000 years ago. It was the capitalof five feudal dynasties-the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing. On October 1 1949, the Peoples Republic of China was founded and, since then, Beijing has been the national capital, the countrys political and cultural center and center of the countrys international exchange. The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace are on the UNESCO List of World Heritage.