Beijing is both a center of state authority and a consequential destination in the lives of the novel’s mathematicians and cryptographers. Decisions made there redirect university research, while the capital’s security apparatus and distance from A City turn travel into a matter of national risk. Its role is therefore more than geographical: Beijing is where political power, scientific work, and the secrecy surrounding Unit 701 converge.

Political Authority and University Decisions

Beijing is the destination of a sudden trip by the university’s chancellor. He leaves without telling anyone what he intends to do. About a month later, a visitor brings three decisions from the central authorities, and those at the university understand that the trip was likely connected to them. One decision gives the chancellor permission to resign; another provides the funds needed to establish a computer research unit at the university. The sequence makes Beijing a place where a private journey can precede institutional change, even when its purpose is not disclosed at the time.

The capital also enters the account of Jan Liseiwicz’s effort to save his father-in-law from execution. Professors and students refuse to join a letter to the government, and a visit to the mayor produces no remedy. The eventual intervention comes from X Country, which sends a special envoy to Beijing to discuss the case with the Chinese government. The decision is elevated to the highest political level, and the exchange secures the father-in-law’s release in return for allowing two Chinese scientists who had been barred from leaving to return home. Beijing is thus the site of negotiations that transform an apparently doomed private case into an international bargain. The narrator stresses the irony: the man’s rescue serves X Country’s interest in Jan Liseiwicz, not affection for the father-in-law.

Headquarters and the BLACK Conference

Beijing is also where Unit 701’s General Headquarters is located. When BLACK remains unbroken after years of work, Unit 701 and the General Headquarters convene a research symposium there. The conference begins the day after Rong Jinzhen arrives, with four deputy heads of the Intelligence Service present. An elderly senior official hosts the inauguration; he is introduced as the first director of the research section, though some privately identify him with a senior political and military role. For Rong, titles matter less than the official’s declaration that the country’s security depends on deciphering BLACK.

The conference gives the capital a direct place in the struggle over the cipher. BLACK is presented not as an abstract puzzle or a test of professional pride, but as a threat to national integrity. That framing gathers senior officials and cryptographers around a shared urgency, while placing the burden of resolution heavily on Rong, Unit 701’s celebrated codebreaker. The setting makes visible the connection between secret technical labor and decisions at the center of government.

Distance, Transport, and Security

The journey between A City and Beijing takes three days and two nights by train. Flights exist, but the novel treats air travel as an unacceptable risk for a cryptographer carrying knowledge of national value. The fear is grounded in an earlier abduction: shortly after Rong broke PURPLE in 1958, agents from X Country seized a low-ranking cryptographer from Y Country aboard an aircraft. Jan Liseiwicz’s colleague Zheng the Gimp knew the abducted man and had eaten with him. By the time the conference is arranged, the precedent has turned travel into an extension of Unit 701’s secrecy regime. If Rong, who has broken PURPLE and is working on BLACK, were aboard a plane, the possibility of an attempted hijacking would become intolerably dangerous.

The outward and return journeys give the same route sharply different emotional weather. On the way to the capital, Rong is anxious about the possibility of being taken; on the return, a soft sleeper car with its own heating unit offers him privacy and a sense of security. His comfort also reflects his preference for distance from other people. He spends the journey reading rather than engaging with his companions, and the enclosed berth provides the separation he values. These details make transport a small-scale version of his life at Unit 701: movement is controlled by security, while solitude offers relief.

A Winter Departure

Before leaving Beijing, Rong visits Yesterday Bookstore and buys two books he has long wanted, including The Riddle, a translation of The Writing of the Gods by Klaus Johannes. Having obtained them, he is content to return to Unit 701. The first winter snowfall arrives the night before his departure, coating the ground and giving the capital a quiet, bright appearance. For a time, the snow and the prospect of a comfortable train journey seem to promise an uneventful return.

That calm is deliberately set against the unease of his arrival. Rong can sleep and read on the way home, in contrast to the earlier journey that had been marked by fear. The return takes two days and three nights, unlike the three days and two nights required to reach Beijing. The changed duration, the secured sleeper, and the books make the trip seem almost restorative; the contrast also underscores how vulnerable his sense of safety remains to the restrictions and dangers surrounding his work.

Narrative Significance

Beijing’s appearances connect political decisions to the routines and risks of intellectual life. A chancellor’s unexplained visit is followed by funding for a research unit; an envoy’s visit turns a threatened execution into a state-level exchange; and the capital’s headquarters hosts a conference that defines cryptanalysis as a matter of national survival. The city’s prominence is therefore institutional as much as physical.

At the same time, Beijing is never simply a place of access or safety. Reaching it requires a long journey, and the threat of abduction governs how Unit 701’s most valuable personnel can travel. Rong’s bookshop visit and snowy departure offer a more personal counterpoint, but even this ordinary pleasure is framed by surveillance, guarded movement, and the work awaiting him. The capital gathers authority around the cryptographic struggle while reminding the reader that the people who serve it cannot move freely through the world.