Why Beijing was spelled 'Peking'

Everything you always wanted to know about the Peking spelling but were afraid to ask:
Backhill/Peking/Beijing (1 MB PDF).

This is issue no. 19 (June 1990) of Sino-Platonic Papers.

You mean it wasn’t because of the ducks?

With a non-aspirated Wade-Giles reading of Pe-king you come pretty close to the Cantonese pba-kging, don’t you? (Sorry for the romanization there – it’s just a quick intuitive semblance.) I always assumed that was the source (with the early Western contact with China via Hong Kong) but I could be wrong.

No time to read the whole PDF now –
Quick quick! What’s the quick answer? Pretty please? :smiley:

[quote]You mean it wasn’t because of the ducks?[/quote] Well…a Bejing Duck doesn’t seem half as tasty as a Peking Duck. And…stay away from the Bombay Duck,