China: Imperial Collapse

"You could do a whole programme on why you shouldn't build a capital in Beijing. It's a Mongolian camel camp." Paul French

Beijing means capital of the north, and was first used by the Ming to distinguish it from Nanjng, capital of the south. Home to the Forbidden City where the emperors lived, the centre had a tortuous relationship with many other parts of China. By the end of the Qing dynasty this relationship had totally broken down, but what was going to replace the old system? Step forward Dr Sun Yat-sen, professional republican revolutionary.

Contributors include Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the South China Post and author of the Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power; Professor Julia Lovell, whose books include The Great Wall and Maoism: A Global History; and also Frances Wood, author of No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, and Paul French, Midnight in Peking.

This is episode three of The Invention of China and episode 57 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds. The presenter is Misha Glenny, the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde.