UNDERSTAND CHINA · MODERN HISTORY
Beijing
Beijing’s modern history is not an afterlife of walls and palaces, but a continuous story of foreign invasion and infringements on Chinese sovereignty, the end of empire, student politics, regime change and the expansion of the national capital after 1949.
City timeline
- 1860 · Anglo-French invasion — The Second Opium War reached the capital; the Old Summer Palace was destroyed and new treaty terms imposed.
- 1900—1901 · Eight-Nation occupation and Boxer Protocol — Occupation zones, looting, garrisons and a fortified Legation Quarter made damaged sovereignty part of urban life.
- 1912—1919 · End of empire and May Fourth — After abdication, Beijing was both the Beiyang capital and a centre of New Culture and student activism.
- 1937—1945 · Occupation by invading Japanese forces and local resistance — After the Japanese imperial government and military launched full-scale war against China, invading Japanese forces occupied Beiping and controlled transport, schools, markets and daily life, while residents sustained resistance in different forms.
- 1945—1949 · Postwar takeover and peaceful liberation — After Japan surrendered, the city passed through postwar transfer and civil war before its peaceful liberation and restoration of the name Beijing in 1949.
- 1949—present · Expansion of the national capital — Government, education, science, industry and commemorative space expanded, creating long tension between growth and old-city conservation.
Begin with these places
- Former Legation Quarter — Read the sovereignty landscape of garrisons, banks, churches and diplomacy.
- Peking University Red Building — Move from editing rooms and classrooms into the May Fourth streets.
- Museum of the War of Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression — Place the Marco Polo Bridge Incident within the full 1931–1945 invasion.