Quoting Apptech <apptechnz@gmail.com>:

> Interestingly, while everyone outside China tends to use only "Beijing" for
> the capital, in China the name Peking seems to be acceptable. I was told (I
> think :-) ) that it means slightly different things to them but is used and
> is understood.
>
> Russell

There is also the similar old name Peiping, or Beiping in Pinyin (the  
second character is ping = peace rather than jing = capital, and the  
first is bei= northern, of course). The last change was after the  
communists won the civil war and moved the capital back from Nanjing  
(Nanking).

According to the Wikipedia article on Beijing, the city name was pronounced
(in Mandarin) more like Beiking 400 years ago when the name was transliterated
-- they say that the consonant sound in Mandarin itself has shifted--  
just as the English 'great vowel shift' occurred in a similar time  
period. Perhaps such a change is unlikely now with so much old  
recorded language floating around.

And, of course, the IATA airport code today is still PEK, just as  
Guangzhou is still CAN (from Canton).


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