What is the capital of China?

Beijing has been the seat of government for most of the last several centuries, and the reason is strategic. It sits on the northern edge of the North China Plain, close to the passes through the mountains that separate agricultural China from the steppe, so a dynasty ruling from there could watch the frontier directly. The Mongols made it their capital, and the Ming emperor Yongle moved the court back north from Nanjing in the fifteenth century and built the Forbidden City, laying the whole city out on a strict north-south axis with the palace at its heart, walls and gates in concentric rings, and the great ritual altars placed by the compass. That axis still organises the modern city, running through Tiananmen Square and out to the Olympic grounds. The name means northern capital, paired with Nanjing, the southern one, which held the role at other times.

Nanjing, meaning southern capital, served as the seat of government in several periods including the early Ming and the Republic.