Beijing is located at 3956'N and 11620' E, covers an area of 16,808 square kilometers, Two-thirds of it are mountains areas encircling the western northern and eastern sides of the city. The center of the city is 43.71 meters above the sea level. Main rivers include the Yongding River, the Chaobai River and the North Canal.Beijing, including the urban and the suburban areas and the nine counties under its administration, is located in the northeastern corner of China, roughly the same latitude as New York City. Beijing municipality has a total area of 16,800 sq km (6552 sq mi). roughly the size of Belgium. Beijing has 10.6 million permanent residents and over 3 million transient populations.The permanent residents of Beijing come from all of China's 56 ethnic groups. The Han nationality accounts for 96.5% of the total. The other 55 ethnic minorities claim a population of more than 300,000, most of them are from Hui, Manchu, and Mongolian nationalities.Though it may not appear so in the

Hutong of Beijing.The word 'Hutong'originated from the Mongolian word 'huto',which means water wells.Since nomadic tribes used to live and stay near water wells,they called the small alleys 'huto'.Hutong had its first appearance in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368).The name was gradually adopted by all the residents of Beijing,and has been handed down to the present.The houses built on each side of Hutong are called Siheyuan(quadrangle),generally rectangular dwelling compounds,in which buildings on four sides.Almost every quadrangle is surrounded by high walls.In fact,Hutong is formed by quadrangles standing side by side along a straight passage.The width of Hutong was clearly regulated in the Yuan Dynasty and measured by steps. A passage of six steps in width was called a hutong,running directly from east to west.A passage of 24 steps in width was then called a street,which ran from north to south.The whole city,therefore,looked like a chessboard.With the passage of dynasties,thi

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