Money
Foreign currency and travelers checks can be changed at large branches of the Bank of China, CITIC Industrial Bank, the airport and hotel money changing counters, and at several department stores (including the Friendship Store), as long as you have your passport. Hotels give the official rate, but some will add a small commission. Useful branches of the Bank of China with foreign-exchange counters include a branch next to Oriental Plaza on Wangfujing Dajie, in the Lufthansa Center Youyi Shopping City, and in the China World Trade Center. For international money transfer, branches of Western Union can be found in the International Post Office and at the post office at No 3 Gongrentiyuchang Beilu (6416 7686; Map pp118–19).

If you have an Amex card, you can also cash personal checks at CITIC Industrial Bank and large branches of the Bank of China.

ATMs that accept foreign credit cards and are linked to international bank settlement systems such as Cirrus and Plus can be found in increasing numbers. The best places to look are in and around the main shopping areas (such as Wangfujing Dajie) and international hotels and their associated shopping arcades; some large department stores also have useful ATMs. There’s a Bank of China ATM in the Capital Airport arrivals hall.

Economy
Since the Communist revolution of 1949, Beijing has become one of the nation’s industrial centers. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Chinese government funded major development of heavy industry in the city, led by the modernization of the Shih-ching-shan Iron and Steel Works, which is now one of the country’s major steel-producing facilities. Today Beijing ranks second only to Shanghai in industrialization, with highly developed machinery, textile, and petrochemical sectors. Agriculture also plays a significant role in Beijing’s economy, with a large farming belt on the city’s periphery serving to reduce its dependence on food supplies shipped in from the Yangtze Valley.

Beijing has a rapidly growing service sector, consisting mostly of government agencies. The People’s Bank of China, the major institution in China’s centralized banking system, has its head office in central Beijing, which is also home to a variety of specialized banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China. Other financial institutions in the city include major insurance companies, credit cooperatives, securities firms, and investment companies. Wholesale and retail commerce and tourism also play a major role in the city’s economy.

The free-market economic reforms of the 1990s created an economic boom for Beijing with the influx of foreign capital and technology.

Getting Around
Beijing’s central city retains its carefully planned historic layout, arranged around a central north-south axis seven-and-a-half kilometers (five miles) long that passes through the city’s entire central core, from the Bell Tower and Drum Tower in the north, through the Forbidden City at the center, to the site of the former Yung-ting Gate in the south. This central core is actually the remnant of two adjoining walled cities, whose outlines are retained although their walls are long gone—a roughly square-shaped “inner” city to the north and a rectangular “outer” city to the south.

History
The Beijing area is known to have been inhabited by prehistoric humans (Homo erectus pekinensis, or Beijing man) approximately 500,000 years ago. The earliest recorded settlement, in what is now southwest Beijing, dates back to around 1045 B. C. By 453–221 B. C. (the “Warring States” period), the site was home to a city called Ji, which was the capital of the Yan Kingdom.