Place · China
The history of Beijing, one place at a time
Assembled from 2 dug tiles · 18 sourced records · last reviewed 17 September 2026
Beijing gathers ground of very different kinds: a canal-side Ming treasury turned imperial birthday stage in Haidian, and Fengtai farmland without electricity until a 1978 order placed a radio university upon it. Between them lie centuries of scripture, siege, and signal.
These are the individual spots Strata has dug in Beijing — not a guide to the town, but a record of what happened on particular ground.
Digs in Beijing
A canal-side treasury that became a ruler's birthday stopA quarter mile from where you stand, a Ming order to store scripture turned a canal bank into a stage for imperial celebration. Haidian
1159–2023 A radio signal replaced the schoolroom
Nine hundred branches and a district that once had no electricity, thirty paces from where you are standing. Fengtai, Beijing
1867–2014
Beijing in layers
1159
Purple Bamboo Park, less than a kilometer northeast, is built around three connected lakes whose origins as landscaped water go back to 1159. Wikidata
1328
John of Montecorvino, a Franciscan sent by the Pope as the first Catholic missionary to China, died in Beijing in 1328. Wikidata
1457–1510
Ming dynasty general Yu Qian died in Beijing in 1457, and the powerful eunuch Liu Jin died here in 1510, two of the figures whose deaths Wikidata records at this city. Wikidata
1577
Wanshou Temple, over a kilometer north, was built in 1577 under the Ming Wanli Emperor to store Sino-Buddhist scriptures, and now also houses the Beijing Art Museum. Wikipedia
1610–1944
Matteo Ricci, the Italian Jesuit missionary who died in Beijing in 1610, is buried at Zhalan Cemetery along with Johann Adam Schall von Bell, Ferdinand Verbiest and other court astronomers who served the Ming and Qing emperors. Wikidata
1867
Lai Afong, a pioneering Chinese photographer, made a photographic view of Beijing in 1867, one of the earliest surviving photographs of the city. Wikidata — Pekin. No. 923
1951
The Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine Affiliated Hospital was founded in 1951, the oldest dated thing recorded within a few hundred meters of this ground. Wikidata
1952
The oldest record anywhere near this spot names it as Fengtai District, established in 1952, and nothing older survives in the local record. FamilySearch — Fengtai, Beijing, China
1954
Capital Normal University, a public teacher-training university co-funded by the city and the Ministry of Education, was founded in 1954 near here. Wikipedia
founded 1978
Deng Xiaoping ordered the university's creation by executive order in 1978, and it now runs distance learning nationwide from its Beijing headquarters under the Ministry of Education. Wikipedia — Open University of China
June 3-4, 1989
In the early hours of June 4, 1989, soldiers fired rubber bullets, tear gas and live rounds at student demonstrators who had built a barricade at Gongzhufen in Haidian District. Wikipedia
June 16, 2002
On June 16, 2002, arsonists set fire to the unlicensed two-story Lanjisu internet cafe in Haidian District, killing 25 people, mostly university students, in the deadliest Beijing fire in fifty years. Wikipedia
December 30, 2012
Huayuan Qiao station, an underground stop on Beijing Subway Line 6, opened on December 30, 2012, a short walk southeast of here. Wikipedia
December 30, 2012
Cishou Si station, an interchange between Lines 6 and 10, opened December 30, 2012, taking its name from the Cishou Temple in nearby Linglong Park. Wikipedia
opened October 12, 2012
Before October 12, 2012, no trains stopped here at all; the station opened that day on Line 9 of the Beijing Subway. Wikipedia — Fengtai Dongdajie station
opened May 5, 2013
The station has an underground island platform and opened on May 5, 2013, with two exits on the north side of Fengti South Road. Wikipedia — Dajing station
opened to Line 14, February 15, 2014
When Line 14 first opened in May 2013, trains simply skipped this station; it only began serving Line 14 passengers on February 15, 2014. Wikipedia — Qilizhuang station
December 14, 2023
On December 14, 2023, two Beijing Subway trains on the Changping Line collided in heavy snow, injuring more than 515 people though nobody died. Wikipedia
Questions about Beijing
What is Beijing known for historically?
Among the ground recorded here, Beijing is known for Wanshou Temple in Haidian, built in 1577 under the Ming Wanli Emperor to store Sino-Buddhist scriptures beside the imperial canal, later becoming a staging post for Qing imperial birthday celebrations and now home to the Beijing Art Museum.
What happened at Haidian in 1989?
Troops opened fire on protesters at a barricade in Haidian on 3-4 June 1989.
What happened at Fengtai in 1978?
Deng Xiaoping's executive order placed the China Central Radio and TV University on farmland that until then had no electricity. That transmitter grew into the Open University of China, now a headquarters serving 45 branches and 3,735 study centers.
When did Fengtai become a district?
This ground has been Fengtai District since 1952.
What else happened near Haidian?
An unlicensed internet cafe fire killed 25 people in Haidian on 16 June 2002. Capital Normal University was established a short distance southwest in 1954, and Purple Bamboo Park's lakes trace back to the 12th century, to 1159.
What transport links serve this ground now?
Fengtai sits near a subway interchange built in stages between 2011 and 2014, including Cishou Si interchange station, Huayuan Qiao station, Fengtai Dongdajie station, Qilizhuang station and Dajing station, opened between 2012 and 2014.