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| colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-size: larger;" | Geography of Beijing
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| colspan="2" style="padding: 1em 0; text-align: center;"|thumb|250px|Location of Beijing Municipality in northern China
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| colspan="2" style="padding: 1em 0; text-align: center;" |thumb|250px|Satellite image of [[List of administrative divisions of Beijing|Beijing Municipality, showing the city of Beijing (in pink) with mountains in the north and west and plains to the east and south]]
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|Continent
|style="padding-right: 1em;" | Asia
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|Location
|style="padding-right: 1em;" | North China Plain
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|Coordinates
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|Area (municipality)
|style="padding-right: 1em;" | Total: <br />
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Beijing is a municipality located in North China at the northern tip of the North China Plain, near the meeting point of the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges. The city itself lies on flat land (elevation ) that opens to the east and south. The municipality's outlying districts extend into the mountains that surround the city from the southwest to the northeast. The highest peaks are over .
Beijing Municipality consists of six city districts (previously eight, see Xuanwu and Chongwen), and ten suburban districts, four of which were formerly counties. It covers a total area of
. By land area, the municipality is slightly smaller than the country of Kuwait, though much of the municipality outside the urban core is sparsely populated mountains and farmland. The terrain is roughly 38% flat and 62% mountainous. The city is inland from the Bohai Sea via Tianjin Municipality in the southeast. Aside from Tianjin, Beijing is bordered on all other sides by Hebei Province, including a piece wedged between Beijing and Tianjin.
Historically, Beijing was situated on the border between sedentary agricultural areas to the south and pastoralist regions beyond the mountains to the north. The Great Wall of China was built across the mountains north of Beijing to guard against nomadic invasions. In modern times, the same mountains that shielded Beijing from the Gobi steppes also form a semi-circular basin which catches the city's air pollution. Severe smog problems develop in the summer as the hot and humid air pressure from monsoons in the south prevent air pollutants from leaving the basin. Smog is less severe in the fall and winter when the direction of the wind currents reverse course as the vast anticyclone high pressure system takes hold and brings cold, dry air from Siberia. In the spring, the northerly winds, pick up dust from desertifying areas of western China and bring occasionally severe dust storms to Beijing. The city's climate is characterized by hot, humid summers and cold, windy, and dry winters.
Layout of Beijing's administrative divisions
In imperial times, the old walled city of Beijing occupied . Longevity Hill in the Summer Palace reaches an elevation of . The plains from Beijing extend to the east as far as Shanhaiguan on the Bohai Sea and as far south as Nanjing, on the Yangtze River.
thumb|upright=1.35|left|[[Jingshan Park|Jingshan, the highest point in the old walled city of Beijing]]
To the west is Xishan, also known as the Western Hills, which are visible from the city on clear days. Xishan forms the eastern flank of the Taihang Mountains range, which run north–south up the spine of Hebei province. Xishan covers nearly all of Fangshan and Mentougou Districts west of the city. East Lingshan (elevation ), a Xishan peak on the border with Hebei, is the highest point in Beijing Municipality, However, a major flood in 295 A.D. devastated part of Beijing, then known as Ji. Just west of Wangfujing, there is still a stretch of Beijing called Shatan or Sandy Beach.
thumb|right|The Tonghui canal, an extension of the Grand Canal, near Gaobeidian
thumb|left|Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace
Today, an aqueduct draws water from the Yongding through Yuyuantan Park to the western city moat, which empties into Liangshui River south of the city. Another aqueduct draws water from Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace down through the Purple Bamboo Park and into the northern city moat, which also replenishes Shichahai, Beihai and Zhongnanhai. The northern moats are drained by the Ba River, which flows into the Wenyu River. The southern and eastern moats are drained by the Tonghui River, which also flow into the Wenyu.
This network of rivers and aqueducts are fed by reservoirs to the north of the city. The Miyun Reservoir, the largest in the municipality, is created at the confluence of the Chao and Bai Rivers, which forms the Chaobai. The Yongding, before entering the municipality in Mentougou District, is dammed to create the vast Guanting Reservoir of Hebei Province. Despite these reservoirs, the city of Beijing faces chronic water shortages due to water-intensive agriculture, industry, and population growth. Under the South-North Water Transfer Project, the city plans to draw water from the Yangtze River through the Grand Canal, which was built 800 years ago for transportation, but now is being upgraded into a major aqueduct.
Climate
The city has a rather dry monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen: Dwa), bordering on a cool semi-arid climate (BSk); characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and generally cold, windy, very dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone. Yet during the winter, winds from the northwest must cross the mountains that shield the city, keeping the city warmer than other locations of similar latitude in China. Spring can bear witness to sandstorms blowing in from the Mongolian steppe, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn, like spring, sees little rain but is crisp and short. January averages , while July averages . Annual precipitation is around , falling mostly in July and August. Extremes have ranged from .
Statistics
Location
thumb|right|upright=0.8|Map of the earth centered at Beijing
With coordinates of 39° 54' 50 N and 116° 23' 30" E, Beijing shares roughly the same latitude as Denver, Indianapolis, Columbus (Ohio), Philadelphia, Ankara, Bukhara, as well as Jiayuguan, Yumen, and Jiuquan in Gansu. The city lines up at about the same longitude as Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia; Dezhou, Shandong; Yongcheng, Henan; Lu'an, Anhui; Linchuan, Jiangxi; Changting, Fujian; Jieyang, Guangdong; Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia; and Mataram, Indonesia. The latitude of the municipality ranges from 39° 27' to 41° 03' N and in longitude from 115° 25' to 117° 30' E.
Beijing's antipode is located in the eastern part of Río Negro Province, Argentina, inland from Viedma.
Area
Direct-administered municipality:
- Total:
- Land:
- Water: negligible
Area comparative
- Australia comparative: approximately the size of Tasmania
- Canada comparative: approximately three times the size of Prince Edward Island
- United States comparative: approximately larger than Connecticut
- United Kingdom comparative: approximately larger than Northern Ireland
- EU comparative: slightly more than the size of Belgium
Maps and satellite images
<gallery caption="" widths="220px" heights="150px">
Image:Beijing urban landsat.jpg | Beijing's urban extent
Image:Beijing SPOT 1059.jpg |Satellite image of the city of Beijing, with the Forbidden City in the center, just north of Tiananmen Square and east of a string of lakes. Also visible are Yuyuantan lake in the west and the southern city moat, which once surrounded the walled outer city.
Image:Beijing ast 2007220 lrg.jpg|Satellite view of the city within the 6th Ring Road
Image:Peking1875.jpg | The Beijing area in 1875
Image:Peking environs 1912.jpg | Beijing in 1912
Image:Peking 1916.jpg | The old city in 1916
File:Txu-oclc-10552568-nj50-2.jpg|Map of Beijing (labeled as PEI-P’ING (PEIPING) ) and nearby areas (1954)
File:Beijing 1986 Vicinity.jpg|Beijing and vicinity in 1986
Image:Beijing city wall map vectorized.svg|Map showing the old walled city, including the inner and outer cities
</gallery><br/>
thumb|upright=1.6|center|Animation zooming down to Beijing in 1978 via Landsat-3. The data then dissolves to Beijing in 2010 through the sensors of Landsat-5. The red areas are non-vegetated urban areas.
See also
- Neighborhoods in Beijing
- Geography of China
- North China Plain
Notes
References
External links
- "Peking", a map from 1914