Ba Sing Se

Ba Sing Se is the titanic capital of the Earth Kingdom, encompassing nearly all of the northeast corner of the country. In the Avatar world, it was the safest place for war refugees until it was captured by the Fire Nation. It was later liberated by the Order of the White Lotus.

History
Capital of the Earth Kingdom and by far the largest city in any of the Four Nations, Ba Sing Se means "Impenetrable City"; The city is so named for its two world-famous walls, the gates of which have no hinges or other hardware and are opened by use of Earthbending. Behind the Outer Wall lies a large expanse of farmland, Lake Laogai, and several mountains. The Inner Wall encloses the city itself. It was the last great Earth Kingdom stronghold after the fall of Omashu.

Early in its history, Ba Sing Se was once simply a small subterranean city carved out of rocks by Earthbenders. As the benders further excavated, they came across beautiful illuminated crystals and began to mine them. The crystals currently serve as a common light source for Earth Kingdom inhabitants. Eventually, as the metropolis' expansion reached above ground levels, the catacombs were abandoned.

Ba Sing Se has been hailed in its history as the greatest fortress in any of the Four Nations, having remained unconquered for centuries prior to the War. For example, when the infamous warlord Chin the Great invaded the entire Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se was the only territory besides the Kyoshi Peninsula to remain free.

In the history of the city, the Outer Wall has only been breached on three occasions: The first was by Fire Nation military forces led by General Iroh, the legendary “Dragon of the West”. This attack, a part of his 600 day long siege of the city, was quickly driven back by the city’s guardian forces after he was weakened by the death of his son, Lu Ten. Years later, the Fire Nation used a great drill to bore through the Outer Wall, but Aang and his friends stopped the machine before the army could take advantage of the hole. By the end of the Season 2 finale, Ba Sing Se had fallen to the hands of the Fire Nation through an internal coup d'etat led by Princess Azula. Finally in the series finale the walls were again breached by Iroh, this time leading the Order of the White Lotus, and using a colossal fire blast strengthened by Sozin's Comet.

Fall of Ba Sing Se
''Your princess Azula, clever and beautiful, disguised herself as the enemy, and entered the Earth Kingdom’s capital. In Ba Sing Se she found her brother, Zuko. And together they faced the Avatar. And the Avatar fell. And the Earth Kingdom fell! Azula's agents quickly overtook the entire city. They went to Ba Sing Se's great walls, and brought them down. The armies of the Fire Nation surged through the walls and swarmed over Ba Sing Se, securing our victory.'' -Lo and Li's speech about the fall of Ba Sing Se in "The Awakening"

In "The Earth King", Princess Azula and her allies, Mai and Ty Lee, disguised themselves as Kyoshi Warriors in order to enter Ba Sing Se as the Earth King's honored guests. During the events of "The Guru" and "The Crossroads of Destiny", Azula let herself and her allies be uncovered as Fire Nation. The Dai Li, as Azula knew they would, took her to see their leader, Long Feng. The two allied in order to stage a coup against the Earth King and the Council of Five. Azula took command of the Dai Li and coordinated the simultaneous capture of the Earth King and the Council of Five, gaining control over the city. Long Feng was in turn released from his prison cell. He attempted to double-cross Azula, but without the support of the Dai Li, he failed and submitted to Azula. The following summer, the city is firmly controlled by Fire Nation forces, who gained access to the city after the Dai Li tore down large sections of the Outer and Inner Walls. The citizens could only look on in horror as the Fire Nation Army flooded into the city.

Recapture
During the four part Finale, the Order of the White Lotus attacked and liberated the city from the Fire Nation. Iroh personally burned away the Fire Nation banner that was hanging over the front of the Royal Palace. After Zuko is crowned Fire Lord, the entire gang celebrates their victory here at the Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop.

This is also where Aang and Katara shared their "final kiss" in the series.

Government
As the capital of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se was home to the Earth King, ruler of the Earth Kingdom. However, after the death of the 51st Earth King, true power in the city belonged to the city's Grand Secretariat, Long Feng. As Head of the Dai Li, Ba Sing Se's "cultural agents", (originally engendered by Avatar Kyoshi following a peasant revolt during the reign of the 46th Earth King) he enforced strict laws within the city, designed to keep him in power and keep knowledge of the war from the King. It was absolutely forbidden to mention the war with the Fire Nation within the city, and those that did were arrested and re-educated in secret Dai Li facilities to the belief that the war did not exist. According to Long Feng, his measures were necessary to maintain Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage and to ensure that the city remains a thriving utopia; however, in truth, they were merely tools used to uphold his totalitarian government.



Though the Earth King had Long Feng arrested during the events of "The Earth King", he allied himself with Azula to engineer a coup d'etat during the events of "The Guru" and, in "The Crossroads of Destiny", he was betrayed by his own Dai Li and ultimately surrendered the city to the Princess of the Fire Nation.

The position of the Earth King was abolished after the Fire Nation took the city, sending the 52nd Earth King into exile. He was replaced by Azula with Joo Dee, as a puppet ruler with the title "Supreme Bueareaucratic Administrator of Ba Sing Se". With Ba Sing Se liberated, it is likely this rule was overthrown.

Royal Earthbender Guards

 * Main Article: Royal Earthbender Guards

The Royal Earthbender Guards of Ba Sing Se are affiliated with neither the Dai Li nor the military, instead they serve as personal protectors of the Earth King, as seen in "The Earth King". There seems to be hundreds of them guarding the Royal Palace. They have also been seen as the gate keepers of the outer and inner walls of Ba Sing Se. The guards use specialized surface-to-surface rocks against invaders approaching on foot, but as displayed in "The Earth King", the projectiles can also serve as surface-to-air rocks against airborne intruders, such as Appa. They wear dark green armor with a green feather on the top. The Earthbender guards first appeared in "The Drill" and were portrayed in "City of Walls and Secrets" as the Earth King's guards and in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" as gatekeepers of the inner wall.

Terra Team

 * Main Article: Terra Team

A platoon of elite Earthbenders that guard the walls of Ba Sing Se commanded by General Sung. The Terra Team was ordered to destroy the Fire Nation drill attacking the wall, but were disabled by Mai and Ty Lee. Their name is clearly influenced by the Latin word "Terra", literally meaning "earth".

Culture
The people of Ba Sing Se value order and stability over freedom. Law and order are maintained under the strictest of police forces to ensure that society does not break down into chaos. The people of Ba Sing Se have a variety of recreational activities available to them including spas, poetry houses, shops, restaurants, the Ba Sing Se Zoo. When the people of Ba Sing Se finish a hard day of work it is common to stop off for a nice cup of tea. It also has a very sophisticated University and the Ba Sing Se monorail to get them around the city faster.

The main characters do not reach Ba Sing Se until "City of Walls and Secrets", where the culture is at first revealed. The city is divided into various levels based on social class, with the ghettos of the poor and refugees being walled off from the rest of the town. It is also revealed that society is heavily controlled, and that the war is not allowed to be mentioned inside the walls. This was meant to maintain order and the cultural heritage of the city, making it the only remaining "utopian" society in the world. The Dai Li maintain strict control of the people and the culture, and prefer to pretend the war does not exist. This is most likely the result of Ba Sing Se's safety - the people of the city consider it impenetrable, and thus feel they can delude themselves into pretending all is fine in the rest of the Kingdom. Those who attempt to disrupt this fantasy are promptly brainwashed by the Dai Li into believing that the war doesn't even exist.

Layout
Ba Sing Se is a divided city, with inhabitants sorted in various walled "rings" based on economic and social class. These range from the Lower Ring, a place of ghettos inhabited by refugees and the poor, to the Upper Ring, home of the Kingdom's ruling classes and the rich. Travel throughout the city (in addition to entering and exiting it) is provided by large, earthbending powered monorails, constructed during the reign of Earth King Yi Ming. The monorails meet in large transit stations, are free to the general public, and are able to greatly shorten the two full days it would take to travel on foot from one end of the city to the other.

Agrarian Zone
Just outside the lower ring, between the outer wall and the inner wall of the city is the agrarian zone, a large underdeveloped area that holds wide open plains of land, primarily used for farming. Despite its vital wildlife and crops resources, the agrarian zone's primary function is serving as a massive land buffer between the outer wall and the inner wall, where all of the Ba Sing Se residents dwell, widening the gap between invaders and citizens if perchance the walls were ever breached. With a self-sustaining supply of food and added protection from siege, the citizens of Ba Sing Se are capable of maintaining daily routine, if not thriving, in the midst of even the most critical of wars. This area in the city houses many farms belonging to citizens, mostly of the Lower Ring, who live behind the Inner Wall and travel outside to tend to the land every day.

The Agrarian Zone served as a station for Earthbender rebellions following Ba Sing Se's capture. The Order of the White Lotus had a camp here prior to the arrival of Sozin's Comet.

Lower Ring
The Lower Ring plays home to the poor classes of Ba Sing Se's society and the majority of its population. These consist of newcomers to the city, including its multitude of refugees, and 'people who work with their hands' such as artisans, laborers, and craftsman. Due to the impoverished state of the citizens of the Lower Ring, as well as the influx of poor refugees, it is implied in "City of Walls and Secrets" that the crime rate is significantly high. Buildings in the Lower Ring are generally small, because the Lower Ring has the most populace and as many people need to be crammed into here as possible. Also, the roofs of the buildings here are brown tiled, indicating the poor status of the owners. Citizens are free to go into the Agrarian Zone, the Lower Ring, naturally, and the Middle Ring, but not the Upper Ring without the personal invitation of a citizen of the Upper Ring, the Earth King or the government.

"Lower Ring" is written in Chinese as 下環.

Middle Ring
The Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se contains the city's middle-class populace. Inside this ring are a vast assortment of shops and restaurants as well as the financial district and Town Hall (the oldest building in the Middle Ring). Ba Sing Se University, a massive warehouse of knowledge and a key landmark of the city, is also located in this area. The buildings of this Ring are much larger than those of the Lower Ring, but smaller than those located in the Upper Ring, and they are more spaced out. It has a generally richer and more peaceful atmosphere than the Lower Ring, as there are lots of flowers and trees, etc. Citizens of the Middle Ring are free to enter the Agrarian Zone, Lower Ring, Middle Ring and the Upper Ring without needing permission.

"Middle Ring" is written in Chinese as 中環.

Upper Ring
As the richest of the three rings, the Upper Ring contains the city's upper class population, as well as military and government officials. The most important citizens of the city reside here, protected against criminal activity by the presence of the Dai Li. The Royal Palace is located in the center of the Upper Ring, within its own walls. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph received a home positioned in the Upper Class as a reward for their successful efforts against the Fire Nation's powerful drill and against the Fire Nation, itself. The buildings of the Upper Ring are huge walled compounds, much like small versions of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace itself and the roofs are done with yellow tiles to symbolize the richness of the building and it's owners. Obviously, Upper Ring Citizens are free to go wherever they please within Ba Sing Se, although it is best that they be careful when traveling to the Lower Ring as they may be the target of a crime.

"Upper Ring" is written in Chinese as 上環.

Royal Palace

 * Main article: Earth Kingdom Royal Palace

Fighting Cliffs
South of Ba Sing Se, the cliffs, one white the other red, stand facing each other with a wide ravine between them. Early Earth Kingdom natives noticed that the ground of the ravine was charred and black and legend holds that the cliffs were created in an ancient battle between Earthbenders and Firebenders, the conflict being awesome that the very ground they fought on soaked up their power and animosity. The cliffs currently are mined for "spark rocks", small, craggy stones used by Earth Kingdom citizens to start fires as displayed by Iroh in "City of Walls and Secrets".

Ba Sing Se University

 * Main article: Ba Sing Se University

Council's War Room
A large room located in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se where the Council of Five meets to discuss war plans. The Councils war room is where the Generals draft their war plans before sending them to the Earth King for final approval. Prior to the Earth King's revelation regarding the war, the Generals would commonly send their plans to Grand Secretariat Long Feng for approval. On the floor of the room is a large map of the Avatar world with colored stone tokens spread out across it representing military units. The Generals move these tokens around to deduce the most effective battle strategies. It is here where General How and the others made the decision to use General Fong's base as the launching point for the Fire Nation invasion.

Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se
Underneath the palace, and possibly much of the city, lies Old Ba Sing Se, an ancient underground city deep within the earth. These catacombs are the remnants of the first settlement in the area, carved underground by Earthbenders. When the city outgrew the original city and spread to the surface, the caverns were abandoned and eventually buried beneath the new city. Inside the interior of Old Ba Sing Se still lie the ancient stone structures, a waterfall and pool, and the luminescent green crystals that gave Ba Sing Se its fame.

Firelight Fountain
Located in the Lower Ring, this is the most romantic make-out spot in town by night, and hugely popular with moms and toddlers who come to feed the turtle ducks by day. Jin's mom and dad snuck out to meet here as teenagers. Jin took Zuko there at the end of their date in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se".

Fancy Lady Day Spa

 * Main article: Fancy Lady Day Spa

Ba Sing Se Zoo

 * Main article: Ba Sing Se Zoo

Middle Ring Restaurant
This "hidden jewel" may never rise above it's "B" rating to attract the oval-ring set -- but who cares! A "charming," "reasonably priced," place with "real bistro atmosphere," it's a "rare find" popular with the Ba Sing Se and Spa University sets. Forgo the "Tourist Menu" for the "unbelievably complex" fried appetizer sampler platter. It is here where Jin took Zuko to dinner on their date. It was an extremely awkward meal, mostly due to Zuko's unsureness.

Pao Family Tea House

 * Main article: Pao Family Tea House

The Jasmine Dragon

 * Main article: Jasmine Dragon

Food Resource
Ba Sing Se's greatest secret to its staying power in the war is the farmland behind its outer wall. Seen in the episode "The Drill", these fields supply the entire city with food to enable them to survive a siege of any duration, so long as the outer wall remains intact, and, due to Earthbending, can be quickly repaired. (It was apparently breached during Iroh's siege, as seen in "Zuko Alone"; however, the city survived, as the siege broke shortly thereafter.)

Trivia

 * The Earth King's palace in Ba Sing Se resembles the Forbidden City of China.
 * The walls of Ba Sing Se have only been penetrated once, by the Dragon of the West (Iroh), during his 600 day siege. According to General Sung, "they were quickly expunged". (Expunged usually means, all references removed from the "record" of an event, as opposed to "expelled", physically removed from a place)
 * In "The Drill", at the arrival station where Zuko and Iroh got their passports stamped is a large sign above that says 歡迎光臨永固城 which translates as "Welcome to Ba Sing Se". Ba Sing Se (永固城) means 'perpetually strong city,' not impenetrable city as General Sung stated. The words also appear in front of word University (永固城大學) at the entrance of the school seen in City of Walls and Secrets.
 * Members of the audience who are Chinese may understand the meaning of the Chinese words that appear in various places in the animation. However, few viewers could figure out what "Ba Sing Se" actually implies. According to the pronunciation of Cantonese (a provincial speech in China), "Ba Sing Se" should be translated into "不碎城". But people who know the Chinese language would recognize that "不碎" has the same meaning as "永固". That is to say, "不會碎裂" is a synonym of "永遠穩固". Therefore, it is also an alternative that "Ba Sing Se" can be translated into "永固城".
 * Ba Sing Se's walls are so massive that they are considered a geological feature and show up on all world maps.
 * Ba Sing Se's division of social level by the inner and outer rings could be a reference to the inner and outer courts (inner being more exclusive) in the Forbidden City, or the same inner and outer rings used to divide many ancient Chinese cities.
 * The physical appearance of the wall is based on the Great Wall of China.
 * In "The Southern Air Temple", Commander Zhao planned to take over Ba Sing Se by summer's end.

Notable Figures

 * The Earth King
 * Long Feng
 * The Dai Li
 * General How
 * General Sung
 * Joo Dee
 * Madame Macmu-Ling
 * Quon
 * Star
 * Pao
 * Jin
 * Kenji