[HaZh]

I've always wondered about this. Beijing is not really at the centre of the Chinese civilization. It's right at the secluded edge, near the deserts, where the winds blow sand all over it from time to time. It's been used as capital by barbaric invaders like Mongols (Yuan) and Manchus (Qing) and that idiot Yan Xishan. Its abbreviation is BJ.

I think Xian should be the capital. It was the capital of the Zhou dynasty, Eastern Han dynasty, and who could forget, the mighty Tang dynasty.

Screw Beijing. May the great deserts eat it up, which one day it will as it slowly grows bigger and bigger.

[Bill]

All the "palaces" are in Beijing. Maybe China should do something like what Brazil did, just build a brand new city right in the center of the country. The concept is quite neat.

[Sampanviking]

Geographically Chongqing is pretty much dead centre of the country and could hardly be better built for the purpose (huge City in an Autonomous Metropolitan Area etc).

It would certainly rebalance much of the country and refocus attention from the coast to the Interior. I do wonder however what effect this would have on the North East of the country. proximity to the Capitla has lifted up this vital but inhospitable part of the country and prevented it from becoming a backwater rust belt (came pretty close 10 years ago). I can imagine how the Government actually sees this as the most vulnerable part of the country, cold, no coastline and mainly economic basket cases for neighbours, but still a densely populated, industrial heartland. By contrast the Coastal regions will look after themselves and are much warmer. The centre will feed off the coast eventually and the West is so sparsely populated, it really does not matter what they think.

[Renmin]

HaZh, on Apr 21 2009, 10:22 PM, said:

I've always wondered about this. Beijing is not really at the centre of the Chinese civilization. It's right at the secluded edge, near the deserts, where the winds blow sand all over it from time to time. It's been used as capital by barbaric invaders like Mongols (Yuan) and Manchus (Qing) and that idiot Yan Xishan. Its abbreviation is BJ.

I think Xian should be the capital. It was the capital of the Zhou dynasty, Eastern Han dynasty, and who could forget, the mighty Tang dynasty.

Screw Beijing. May the great deserts eat it up, which one day it will as it slowly grows bigger and bigger.

Is this just another one of your "I dont like China" statements or is it something else? Beijing has thousands years of history and is the perfect place for a capital if you ask me. Building new capitals is kinda a stupid idea in my opinion. Its not neccessary and it doesnt have too much value in it either. In the end, it is throwing money away for no reason. Beijing is a city that merges past, present, and future all together. That is what a capital should be. A place where the past can be recalled but the future can still be seen brightly.

[Red Fox Ace]

Chongqing is better, but by this point Beijing has had such political and historical significance that you can't ask it to be moved. Too much emotional attachment. It's like making New York City the capitol instead of Washington D.C.