北平

Běipíng

proper noun

Meanings

1 Beiping, name of Beijing in the early Ming and from 1928 to 1949

Characters

peace; pacified

Examples

HSK 2

我爷爷说，他小时候北京还叫北平。

Wǒ yéye shuō, tā xiǎoshíhou Běijīng hái jiào Běipíng.

My grandpa says that when he was little, Beijing was still called Beiping.

HSK 4

老舍的很多小说写的都是北平普通人的生活。

Lǎo Shě de hěnduō xiǎoshuō xiě de dōu shì Běipíng pǔtōng rén de shēnghuó.

Many of Lao She's novels are about the lives of ordinary people in Beiping.

Tips

history

The Ming took the Yuan capital in 1368 and renamed it 北平, 'the north pacified'. The Yongle Emperor renamed it 北京, 'northern capital', in 1403 and moved his court there. When the Nationalist government made Nanjing the capital in 1928, the city became Beiping again, until the new government chose it as its capital in 1949.

usage

Peiping is the older English spelling. In Taiwan the name 北平 stayed in official use for decades after 1949.

Stroke Order

北 běi

平 píng