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China Beijing
   
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Yellow-rumped Flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia ©Alister Benn http://www.availablelightimages.com

Strictly speaking Beijing is not a province but a municipality but it has the same political status as a province.

Beijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the four municipalities of the PRC, which are equivalent to provinces in China's administrative structure. The municipality of Beijing borders Hebei Province to the north, west, south, and for a small section in the east, and Tianjin Municipality to the southeast. Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

Beijing is China's second largest city, after Shanghai. Beijing is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and motorways passing through the city. It is also the focal point of many international flights to China. Beijing is recognised as the political, educational, and cultural center of the People's Republic of China, while Shanghai and Hong Kong predominate in economic fields. The city hosted the 2008 Olympic Games. Few cities in the world besides Beijing have served as the political and cultural centre of an area as immense as China for so long.

The Encyclopædia Britannica describes it as, 'One of the world's great cities,' and declares that the city has been an integral part of China’s history for centuries, and there is scarcely a major building of any age in Beijing that doesn't have at least some national historical significance. Beijing is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have long made the city a centre of culture and art in China.

Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular North China Plain, which opens to the south and east of the city. Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing County and Huairou District, are dominated by the Jundu Mountains, while the western part of the municipality is framed by the Xishan Mountains. The Great Wall of China, which stretches across the northern part of Beijing Municipality, made use of this rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes. Mount Dongling in the Xishan ranges and on the border with Hebei is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of 2303 m. Major rivers flowing through the municipality include the Yongding River and the Chaobai River, part of the Hai River system, and flow in a southerly direction. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the Grand Canal of China which was built across the North China Plain to Hangzhou. Miyun Reservoir, built on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is Beijing's largest reservoir, and crucial to its water supply.

The urban area of Beijing is situated in the south-central part of the municipality and occupies a small but expanding part of the municipality's area. It spreads out in bands of concentric ring roads, of which the fifth and outermost, the Sixth Ring Road (the numbering starts at 2), passes through several satellite towns. Tian'anmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) and Tian'anmen Square are at the centre of Beijing, and are directly to the south of the Forbidden City, former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is Zhongnanhai, residence of the paramount leaders of the People's Republic of China. Running through central Beijing from east to west is Chang'an Avenue, one of Beijing's main thoroughfares.

The city's climate is a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dwa), characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and generally cold, windy, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone. Average temperatures in January are at around 1 °C (33°F), while average temperatures in July are around 30°C (87 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded was 42 °C and the lowest recorded was -27 °C. In 2005, the total precipitation was 410.77 mm; the majority of it occurred in the summer

 
 

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Wikipedia
(GNU Free Documentation License)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing

* Field Guides & Bird Song

For a comprehensive list of recommended titles covering China as a whole - please see the China page of Fatbirder

Beijing Bird Watching Society

Information

Beijing Bird Watching Society (BBWS) (in preparation) was founded by active and keen birdwatchers in Beijing. It is committed to forming bird watching groups in Beijing and promoting local bird watching activities. A number of members of BBWS have a professional background on ornithology, ecology, environmental conservation or education....

BirdWatch China

Website

Beijing Bird Watching Society (BBWS) (in preparation) was founded by active and keen birdwatchers in Beijing. It is committed to forming bird watching groups in Beijing and promoting local bird watching activities. A number of members of BBWS have a professional background on ornithology, ecology, environmental conservation or education... see: http://www.chinabirdnet.org/beijing.html

Songshan Nature Reserve

Website
Satellite View
Covering an area of 4,660 hectares, the Reserve mainly protects natural Chinese pine trees...

2002 [December] - Jesper Hornskov and Jan Kiel - Beidaihe Area

Report

...On 2 Dec we visited scrub-covered hillsides at the Great Wall near Shanhaiguan before JK departed on the 13h30 train, enjoying prolonged sessions with several N China birds, incl. Pere David`s Laughingthrush, Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Chinese Hill Warbler, and the exquisite Godlewski`s, Meadow & Yellow-throated Buntings...

2003 [June] - Steve Bale - Baihuashan

Report

...Also, if you are planning to spend a day getting there, there are many places along the 109 that would seem to be worth a stop. This main highway follows the Qingshui River for more than 50km. The long valley is flanked by steep mountains and is lined with woods, accessible scrub, attractive marshy areas; a lake or two; and even some patches of reeds. This area may be particularly good during migration. Even though it was late in the season, we saw 4 Black-capped Kingfishers perched on the same line of telegraph wires above the dry upper-reaches of the Qingshui River...

2003 [October] Rob Drummond - Shanghai, Gaoyou, Yangzhou, Yellow Mountain area - Annhui Province, Beijing, Great Wall - Badalang

Report

I have just returned from three weeks in China as part of a school trip so basically I was acting as a sheep dog for 57 teenagers and most birdwatching was incidental. We visited the usual places although we did spend 10 days at Gaoyou which is located on the Grand Canal, c160 km north of Nanjing and is certainly a place off the tourist path and I suspect not a place that has been visited by too many overseas birders. Several of my records from there were of species whose distributions, according to the field guide, stopped at the Yangtze...

2005 [April] - Edward C Hall

Report

During the course of an OAT tour of China, I took every opportunity to break away for birding. Following are some suggestions as to where others might productively visit. These suggestions reflect, of course, the time of year that I was there and may not be as applicable to other seasons...

Birding Pal

Information

Local birders willing to show visiting birders around their area...

Wings

Tour Operator

...Returning to Beijing we'll head out to the coast to search for migrants such as Great Knots, Red-necked Stints, White's Thrushes and Siberian Blue Robins at Beidaihe, a world-class coastal migration site. Here we'll also stand a good chance of seeing regional specialties such as Baikal Teal and Relict and possibly Saunders's Gulls...

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