Beijing is an old city- and when we say old, we mean ancient. It was first mentioned in chronicles around three thousand years ago as a trading centre between the Mongols, the Koreans and local Chinese tribes. It remained little more than a trading post until 1264, when the Mongols, led by Kublai Khan, seized the city and made it the Imperial Capital. Marco Polo, travelling down the Silk Route arrived at the Imperial Capital and was greatly impressed by the houses and manner of people who lived here. During the reign of the Ming emperors, Beijing, as we know it, first began to take shape. The second monarch, Yongle, laid the foundations of the Imperial City and the Temple of Heaven. Under Yongle, the city was laid in a symmetrical format, extending in squares and circles from the palace and inner city to the suburbs.

The city reached its zenith during the period of the Qing Emperors, who built the legendary Summer Palace that was eventually razed-almost to the ground- by the British during the Opium Wars.

The Empire came to an end in 1911 with the abdication of the last Emperor, and in the decades that followed Beijing suffered badly- especially during World War II, when it was occupied by Japanese troops.

In 1949, the establishment of the Republic by Mao Zedong, resulted in further changes in Beijing. Crazed by the urge to `modernise’, the communists destroyed old buildings left, right and centre. It took some years for better sense to prevail. Fortunately, in the years since, the administration in Beijing has tried to make amends- restoration has been high on the agenda, as have been efforts to reduce pollution and improve the environment. Both have helped to quite an extent, but Beijing’s burgeoning population makes it an uphill task.