Pei-p'ing

A form of Peiping — Former name of Beijing.

Meanings

proper noun

alternative also Peiping · alternative also Beiping

  1. alternativeAlternative form of Peiping.

    The capital, Ulan Bator, has been linked by rail with the Trans-Siberian Railway at Ulan-Ude and with Pei-p'ing (Peking) in the south.

    1979, Shirley Carpenter, Atlas of Man and His World, Aldus Books, →ISBN, page 124
    5 more examples

    In 1928, when the Nationalist Government removed the capital to Nanking, Peking once more became merely a provincial town under the name Pei-p’ing, as in the first Ming period.

    1935, L. C. Arlington, “Introduction”, in In Search of Old Peking, published 2015, →ISBN, →OCLC, page xii

    Pei-p'ing (Peking) has many times been the capital of China and in recent centuries has been the center of intellectual and cultural activities.

    1944, A. G. Wenley, John A. Pope, China, Lord Baltimore Press, page 6

    In Berlin Kümmel avidly collected the pertinent new literature published in Shanghai and by the Palace Museum in Pei-p’ing after its foundation in 1925.

    董其昌的寶藏

    2005, Lothar Ledderose, “Tung Ch’i-ch’ang’s Treasure Trove [董其昌的寶藏]”, in 故宮學術季刊, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2023, page 416

    Later on during the reigns of the first two emperors of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Nanjing became their capital, and the old Mongol capital in the north was renamed Pei-p’ing (Northern peace). The third Ming emperor, however, restored it as the imperial seat of the dynasty and gave it a new name “Beijing” (northern capital). Since then, Beijing has remained the capital of China except for a brief period between 1928 and 1949 when Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist government moved the capital down to Nanjing again (although the capital was again relocated to Chungqing during WWII). During that time, Beijing again assumed the old name of Pei-p’ing which, ironically, is still used by the Nationalist government in Taiwan when referring to this city.

    2007, Lahui Ako, “Beijing Sheng Into the 21st Century”, in Lahui Ako's Upstream Through Endless Sands of Blessings, CBS Publishers & Distributors, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 508

    In 1937, an ancient stone bridge, named after the explorer Marco Polo, that spanned a river near the Chinese city of Pei-p’ing (now Beijing) became part of history.

    2011, R. Conrad Stein, World War II in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki, Enslow Publishers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 17

Origin

  1. Mandarin北平
  2. EnglishPei-p'ing

From Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin 北平 (Pei³-pʻing²).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Pei-p'ing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pei-p'ing

MLA

“Pei-p'ing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pei-p'ing. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Pei-p'ing,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pei-p'ing.

Source: Pei-p'ing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.