Beijing, China

Peopled some 5,000 years ago, the area that makes up today's Beijing sprouted a frontier trading town for the Mongols, Koreans and tribes from Shandong and central China around 1000 BC. Burnt to the ground by Genghis Khan in 1215 AD, the resurrected city was passed on to Kublai Khan (Genghis's grandson) as Dadu, or Great Capital. The mercenary Zhu Yanhang led an uprising in 1368, taking over the city and ushering in the Ming Dynasty. The city was renamed Beiping (Northern Peace) and for the next 35 years the capital was shifted to Nanjing. When it was shunted back again, Beiping became Beijing (Northern Capital) and up went such foreboding structures as the Forbidden City.

Under the Manchu invaders, who established the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century, Beijing was thoroughly renovated and expanded. From the beginning, however, it was obvious that any city proclaimed China's heart would endure a tumultuous existence. While invaders have dwindled since the days when Anglo-French troops were razing the Old Summer Palace or the Japanese army was in occupation in the 1930s, internal power struggles will always dog this fiery nation's capital.

With Mao Zedong's proclamation of a 'People's Republic' in Tiananmen Square in 1949, the Communists stripped back the face of Beijing. Down came the commemorative arches, along with several outer walls, in the interests of solemnity and traffic circulation. Soviet town planning know-how was employed at the time, which explains the Stalinesque features of many prominent buildings and landmarks.

Beijing's darkest modern moment came in 1989 when a massive pro-democracy student protest in Tiananmen Square was brutally and bloodily crushed by Deng Xiaoping's government forces. That such an atrocity could happen while capitalist-style reforms flooded the city with shopping malls and foreign money typifies Beijing - a moody city of contrasts and contradictions. These days, both the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre are taboo topics among officials.

Nonetheless, in 1994 the Chinese leadership was confident that their nation had re-established its reputation on the world stage. When cities were being polled to host the 2000 Olympics, the Chinese assumed Beijing would win. They took the rebuff badly when Sydney, Australia, was chosen. Nor did the Chinese win many friends in 1995 when Beijing played host to the United Nations' Conference on Women. Having lobbied the UN hard to get the conference, the Chinese then denied visas to at least several hundred people who wanted to attend because they were regarded as politically incorrect.

Beijing continued to vigorously tarnish its image, particularly in the West, by firing missiles into the waters just off Taiwan in early 1996, in an effort to affect the outcome of the Taiwanese presidential election. However, all they managed to do was increase support for the candidate they despised the most, Lee Tenghui, who was elected Taiwan's leader with a convincing 54% of the vote. They tried a similar stunt in the 2000 presidential elections, threatening to wage war on Taiwan if pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian was elected - he was, and they didn't.

Beijing took a break from its international public relations activities in early 1997 to stage the funeral of the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, a momentous event which saw huge crowds of grieving Beijingers lining the streets of the capital. The Chinese takeover of Hong Kong soon after in July 1997 seemed more a nationalistic orgy than a culturally festive occasion, though the hand-over of Macau in December 1999 ended up being a much tamer event.

Beijing's most recent round of image-enhancing efforts have included the abolition of the last of the city's official off-limit areas, established in the 1950s to quarantine the cultural revolution from foreign influences, and the energetic pursuit of the 2008 Olympic Games - with the latter, however, a new and improved history rather than sport may be foremost in the minds of Chinese officials, considering one proposal to stage beach volleyball games and part of the triathlon in Tiananmen Square.