Beijing is the Asian capital formerly rendered as “Peking” in many Western languages.
The city’s modern English spelling follows pinyin, the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Beijing means “Northern Capital,” from the Chinese characters bei, meaning north, and jing, meaning capital. The name distinguishes it from Nanjing, or “Southern Capital.”
“Peking” is an older Western romanization that developed before pinyin was standardized. It remains visible in established names such as Peking University and the airport code PEK, even though Beijing is now the normal English form. The older spelling reflects historical attempts to represent Chinese pronunciation using different European conventions.
The city has changed names several times. During parts of the Republic of China period it was called Beiping, meaning “Northern Peace,” but the name Beijing was restored in 1949 when it became the capital of the People’s Republic of China. Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing are major Chinese cities, but none is the city formerly known in English as Peking.