Seven Wonders
Match each ancient wonder to the place it stood, in a free timed browser game. The list every schoolchild learns.
HistoryChinese Capitals
For more than two thousand years, the seat of Chinese power moved between a handful of cities. Below: the links that make the shifts memorable.
Choose your difficulty
Pick a level to start playing. You can switch at any time.
How to play
Read the dynasty, then tap its capital.
Tip: your progress and best score are saved in this browser only.
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HistoryWhat you are actually practicing
For more than two thousand years the seat of Chinese power moved between a small number of cities, and the pattern is easier to remember than it looks. The Qin and early Han sat in the west near modern Xi'an, the Tang briefly returned there, the Song split between Kaifeng and Hangzhou, and from the Yuan onward Beijing took the centre.
Learning these as pairs, capital to dynasty, turns a list of dates into a story about movement.
How the game works
You are shown a dynasty and four possible capitals. Tap the right one. A wrong pick shows the answer immediately.
Easy uses the seven best-known dynasties. Medium widens the pool. Hard uses the full list, including the short-lived houses between the big ones.
The links worth knowing
From the west: the Qin dynasty ruled from Xianyang, just north of present-day Xi'an. The Western Han ruled from Chang an, the same city under its old name. The Eastern Han moved east to Luoyang, and stayed there through the Han, the Three Kingdoms and the Jin.
The south and the north: the Shu kingdom of the Three Kingdoms ruled from Chengdu. The Western Jin ruled from Luoyang, and the Eastern Jin from Jiankang, present-day Nanjing.
Sui, Tang and the northern houses: the Sui ruled from Chang an, and the Tang from the same city, which was rebuilt and renamed Daxing during the Sui. The Later Tang ruled from Luoyang. The Former Qin also ruled from Chang an.
Song and after: the Northern Song ruled from Kaifeng. The Southern Song moved south to Lin an, present-day Hangzhou. The Later Jin ruled from Kaifeng.
The northern dynasties: the Zhou ruled from Luoyang, and the Shang from Yin, near modern Anyang. The Western Xia ruled from Xingqing. The Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchen ruled from Zhongdu, present-day Beijing. The Yuan ruled from Dadu, which was the city later called Beijing.
Late imperial: the Ming ruled from Beijing, and the Qing from Beijing as well.
How to get faster
Group them by period rather than by dynasty. Western capitals, southern capitals, and then the long northern period when Beijing took over are three separate stages, and each stage has one or two names to remember.
A note on the names
Two of the capitals have more than one name, and the set uses the name in use at the time. Lin an was called Hangzhou before the Southern Song moved the court there and renamed it. Dadu was the Yuan name for the city that is Beijing today.