问答题 Read the following text(s) and write an essay to
1) summarize the main points of the text(s),
2) make clear your own viewpoints, and
3) justify your stand.
In your essay, make full use of the information provided in the text(s). If you use more than three consecutive words from the text(s), use quotation marks(" ").
You should write 160-200 words.
Lying in the northern part of North China Plain, Beijing is surrounded by mountains on the west, the north and the northeast. The northeastern part of the city is high while the south western part is low topographically, with a southeastern plain tilted gradually downward to the Bohai Sea.
As the capital of China, Beijing is one of the world"s truly imposing cities, with a 3,000-year history and 15.3 million people (2005). Covering 16,808 square kilometers in area, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the People"s Republic.
Rich in history, Beijing has been China"s primary capital for more than seven centuries. A city plan was first laid out in the Yuan Dynasty. Yet only after extensive reconstruction during the Ming and Qing, did the city emerge as an architectural masterpiece fit to serve as the capital of the Chinese empire. A north-south axis bisects the city with the Imperial Palace was known as Danei (The Great within). In the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed the Forbidden City(Zijincheng), and more recently it has come to be called the Palace Museum (Gugong Bowuyuan). Designed with thousands of hails and gates arranged symmetrically around a north-south axis, its dimensions and luxuriance are a fitting symbol of the power and greatness of traditional China.
At Tiananmen Square, besides the old Forbidden City Palace of the emperors in the past, there stand the Great Hall of the People"s Congress building and the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao Zedong.
The old city walls have been replaced by ring roads, and many of the old residential districts of alleys and courtyard houses have been turned into high-rise hotels, office buildings, and department stores. Beijing, a dynamic city where the old and new intermingle, remains a magnet for visitors from inside and outside China.