Pékin

Pékin (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: Beijing Listen to the pronunciation in Mandarin, literally "northern capital") is the capital of the People's Republic of China. Located in the north, the municipality of Beijing (北京市, abbreviated 北京), with an area of ​​16,800 km2, borders Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality. Beijing is considered the political and cultural center of China, while Shanghai and Hong Kong predominate in economic terms.

First City peripheral of the Chinese empire under the Han and Tang dynasties, it becomes important when the Jurchen, who founded the Jin Dynasty, chose as their main capital in 1153 Mongol prince Kublai Khan actually same as the Dadu ("great city"), and finally the Ming are transferring their administration in 1421, completing the choice of Beijing as the capital of China. Located near the Great Wall, Beijing is home to famous landmarks such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, which are listed as World Heritage. Many architectural and structural achievements have changed the city during the Olympic which it hosted in 2008 Games.

With 19.6 million inhabitants (2010), Beijing is the second most populous city in China after Shanghai. The urban area account for its 18 million inhabitants. The talk Pekingese form the basis of standard Mandarin. From an economic perspective, Beijing is the third largest city in China with total GDP, after Shanghai and Hong Kong. She knows very rapid economic growth, well above 10% per year in the 2000s a new central business district (CBD) is under construction.

The great plain of northern China, where Beijing is geologically a sedimentation area consists of alluvium brought for millennia primarily by the Yellow River, the richest in the world in mud river, whose foothills northern and southern Shandong Peninsula reach the Yellow Sea. It consists of alluvial loess and sand brought by the various rivers from the mountains of the West. This formed over time delta in northern China.

From a climate perspective (hot and humid and cold, dry winters summers with dust storms) and phytogeographical (landscape close to the characteristics of the steppes), the Beijing area is similar to the landscapes of neighboring hills.

The area is subject to frequent earthquakes due to tectonic activity and the slow passage of the Indian plate under the Eurasian continental plate. The speed of the tectonic plates of the averages of about four centimeters per year. Thus, July 28, 1976, occurred in Tangshan, 140 km east of Beijing, one of the most devastating earthquakes in the twentieth century (see the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan). With a magnitude of 8.2 on the Richter scale, the official death toll in deaths from the Government of the People's Republic of China refers to a figure of 242,419 with a power earthquake officially announced at 7.8, but some estimates put the figure of nearly 800,000 deaths. The earthquake also resulted in damage to Beijing and other cities in the region.

Beijing is facing many environmental problems. These include excessive pollution of rivers, problems in the supply of drinking water, high air pollution, inadequate public transport and increased traffic. Since the early 1990s, the government made ​​greater efforts to protect the environment. He has introduced legislation promoting recycling, normalizing the environmental impact assessment, energy efficiency and monitorant air pollution.

Since 1 January 2003, only personal cars meeting the Euro 2 standard could be registered in Beijing. Many diesel buses were replaced by vehicles running on natural gas. In addition, the number of electric trolley bus reached a total of 18,000 buses in Beijing. For rail, extensions of the subway system have been undertaken. The air pollution in the city is more serious. The high concentration of particulate matter and carbon dioxide are a major problem.

The air quality, according to WHO, remains one of the worst in the world. The reasons are many factories and power plants on the outskirts of the city, and the number of transport and household use, fuels pollutant. Due to rapid urbanization, the large increase in traffic volume and concentration of industries in the metropolitan area has led to excessive emission of pollution and smog is a serious threat to public health, respiratory diseases are increasingly important in the population of the capitale7.

To improve air quality, new stricter emission rules were enacted. Since 1 March 2008, all new cars must meet the Euro 4 emission standard, which is mandatory in Europe for new cars since January 2005 (Euro 5 has since entered into force in Europe in September 2009).

From 2008, the American Embassy measure pollution Pékin8.

Since October 2012, the Chinese government set up stations that measure air pollution in Pékin8. In January 2013, the city has 358 Beijing had no emergency air plan before the January 20138.

Concentration of less than 2.5 microns in diameter particles broke the record of 700 ug / m 3 for 3 days in January 20138. WHO recommends a maximum of 25 mg / m 3 averaged over 24 h8. Many flights were canceled due to a lack of visibility. This record is due to intense cold, causing a significant increase in heating with wood or coal. According to the IEA, China consumed half the mondial8 coal.
Moreover, the absence of wind, the number of vehicles fossil fuel and plant near Beijing centaines8 worsened the problem of air pollution.

The particles have killed a total of 8,600 people in 2012 to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi'an9,8.

A study published in June 2013, conducted by the NGO Greenpeace and American experts, is centered on the core 196 coal located on the outskirts of Beijing. This pollution has killed nearly 2,000 Beijingers in 2011, and about 8000 in the province of Hebei.