Beijing, an ordinary border town before the Liao Dynasty, became the political center of the whole country and even East Asia because of the needs of the political structure in the following dynasties.
Many people in Black Beijing say that Beijing is a big rural area with poor urban construction, poor surroundings, harsh natural conditions and few products. It is a gourmet desert, which is incomparable with the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta. In fact, all this is caused by the characteristics of the political center.
The Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are naturally formed by economic laws. Originally, the region was very developed, but Beijing was not. It was established under general economic and natural conditions. Beijing, as the capital, needs to continuously transport grain from the south, which is the best proof. Economically, Beijing should not have become such a big city, but because it has become the capital, it has passively become such a big city. So many southerners say that Beijing has bad natural conditions. In fact, Beijing is just like this, just because of political reasons, the capital city is built here.
Beijing's history and culture are also cultural characteristics as a political center. The Ming and Qing buildings in Beijing, the palaces belonging to the royal family are all red walls and golden glazed tiles, but the hutongs belonging to ordinary people are all gray and distinct.
People living in the north of Qiansanmen Street in Beijing look down on people living in the south of Qiansanmen Street, which is also related to this. Some people say that the water quality in Cheng Nan is poor, but that is actually an excuse, mainly because the northern city used to be an inner city and lived in the Eight Banners, while Cheng Nan was an outer city and mainly lived in civilians, so it was delayed. But now I don't know if there is such a thing.
Snacks in Beijing have always been said by outsiders to be unpalatable, which is actually related to this. No one says that Beijing's "big meals" are not delicious, such as Beijing roast duck, roasted meat, instant-boiled mutton and so on. And as long as you have money, you can eat delicious food from all over the world, and all kinds of ingredients are transported by air. It is mainly civilian snacks that are criticized crazily by outsiders. Many cities in other places have cheap and delicious civilian snacks, but Beijing is … at least not accepted by many foreigners. This is mainly because the local snacks in Beijing were in the development stage at that time. First, the products were relatively poor. Second, they used to make full use of a large number of ingredients such as internal organs that were not eaten by dignitaries in the city. Therefore, local people often ate them, and most foreigners didn't like them. In addition, Beijing is the capital, and the rent is high, which leads to the failure of many high-quality local snacks. Many foreign tourists can only eat expensive and unpalatable tourists for restaurants. But the rich are different. Although the local products in Beijing are poor, you can transport all kinds of rare ingredients from other places. You can invite the world's top chefs to eat as much as you want.
So, what is it like when Beijing is not the capital?
The time when Beijing was called "Beiping" was the darkest moment in Beijing. Nowadays, many hotels and the like are always under the banner of "Beiping", always thinking about nostalgia, but they don't know how miserable Beijing was during that time. After the victory of the Northern Expedition in the Republic of China, the capital was moved to Nanjing and Beijing was reduced to Beiping. Most rich people followed them to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. The poor people on the streets of Beiping can only rely on some cultural relics left behind to develop tourism under the banner of "old capital" and "cultural city". At that time, Beiping was a hell for the poor in North China, but it was a paradise for the rich in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai and foreign tourists. At that time, it was very popular for rich people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai to travel to Beiping by train, and they could enjoy good service at a very low price. The poor in North China and the fleeing aristocrats of the former Qing Dynasty, men can only pull rickshaws for a living, while monks have more meat and less food, so they can't make a living. There have also been incidents in which rickshaws smashed trams to vent their anger. I won't say what many women do ... there are still relics outside the front door.
It was not until the founding of New China and the re-establishment of Beijing that Beijing gradually got better.
To sum up, Beijing is Beijing because it is the political center, which is why everything started. The highlights of Beijing are Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and New China, which is the power center of East Asia and the first-tier city of China. The darkest moment in Beijing was the Republic of China in the 1930s and 1940s, when it became "Beiping" and a city of poor people. ...