Pekin

(pe-keen',) or PEKING. [Chin. Pih-king, the northern capital.) The metropolis of the empire of China, and C. of p. Pe-chi-le, lies in a sandy plain bet. the Hoang-ho and Pei-ho rivers, 100 m. W.N.W. of the Gulf of Pe-che-le, in the Yellow Sea; N. Lat. 39° 52′ 12″, E. Lon. 116° 28' 54". P. consists of two divisions, each surrounded by walls, and the whole 25 m. in circumference. The N., termed the " inner city," is the principal, being the seat of the imperial court; the S. portion is inhabited chiefly by the trading and laboring cla es. Taken by the Mongols under Jenghis Khan, it was rebuilt by Kublai Khan, and made by him the cap. of his empire, 1260-1367. In 1421 it became the Chinese metropolis in lieu of Nankin; and, in 1860, surrendered to, and was occupied by an Anglo-French force sent to exact redre for outrages committed on English and French merchants. Pop. estim. at 2,000,000. Pe'kin, in Illinois, a town, C. of Tazewell co., 60 m. N. of Springfield. Pop. 5,696. [s. 693]