The capitals of the Chinese Dynasties more or less corresponded to the Fengshui pattern: a river to the south and a hill to the north, sometimes there was the need to pile up an artificial mountain or to divert a creek. All cities in China were fortified with a city wall (cheng 城) and enclosed dwelling quarters of population, merchants and guilds; one or more markets (shi 市); and the administration buildings respectively the imperial palace of the capital city. The modern Chinese word for city, chengshi 城市, is composed of the terms for "wall" and "market". Administratorial buildings were normally located in the central or northern part of the city, the inner or private buildings of the emperor or magistrate or whoever in the north, official halls to the south. The emperor or his representant is facing the south, the subjects bowing to the north. Many dynasties had more than one capital city. The following table shall give an overview of the capital cities (secondary capitals and the capitals of minor dynasties are not included in this table): Capital city Location (modern) Period Zongzhou 宗周 or Chengzhou 成周 near Xi'an/Shaanxi Western Zhou 西周 Xianyang 咸陽 near Xianyang/Shaanxi Qin 秦 Chang'an 長安 Xi'an/Shaanxi Former Han 西漢 Western Jin 西晉 some of the 16 Kingdoms Sui 隋 Tang 唐 Luoyang 洛陽 (雒) Luoyang/Henan Eastern Zhou 東周 Later Han 後漢 Cao-Wei 曹魏 Northern Wei 北魏 Jianye 建業 Jiankang 建康 Nanjing 南京 Nanjiang/Jiangsu Wu 吳 Eastern Jin 東晉 Southern Dynasties 南朝 Ming 明 (begin) Heavenly Kingdom 太平天國 Republic (Nanjing government) 民國 Chengdu 成都 Chengdu/Sichuan Shu-Han 蜀漢 Datong 大同 Datong/Shanxi Northern Wei 北魏 (begin) Kaifeng 開封 Kaifeng/Henan Five Dynasties 五代 Northern Song 北宋 Lin'an 臨安 Hangzhou/Zhejiang Southern Song 南宋 Linhuang 臨潢 Balinzuo Banner/Inner Mongolia Liao 遼 Xingqing 興慶 Yinchuan/Ningxia Xia 夏 Daxing 大興 Dadu 大都 Beijing 北京 Beiping 北平 (later Rep.) Beijing Jin 金 Yuan 元 Ming 明 Qing 清 People's Republic 人民共和國 Mukden (Shenyang 瀋陽) Shenyang/Liaoning Manchus (pre-Qing period) The picture on the right top shows a map of the imperial palace of the Tang Dynasty 唐 from Li Haowen's 李昊文 description of Chang'an Chang'an zhitu 長安志圖 (written during Yuan 元). The link will show an enlarged copy of the city plan, south to the top like it was use in traditional Chinese maps. Except the north, every side of the square city has three gates. The outer square is the city wall (jingcheng 京城), the middle square the wall of the imperial quarter (huangcheng 皇城), and the inner square represents (not in a real scale) the wall of the imperial palace (gongcheng 宮城). The text within the palace square reflects the names of the gates and halls inside the palace area. The halls are, from south to north, the Taijidian 太極殿 "Hall of the highest extreme", Liangyidian 兩儀殿 "Hall of the two principles (Heaven and Earth; here begins the Inner Court neichao 內朝)", and Ganludian 甘露殿 "Hall of sweet dew". Compare the names of the Imperial Palace in Beijing.