Ba Sing Se

History
Ba Sing Se was the capital of the Earth Kingdom. It withstood a six-hundred day siege led by the Fire Nation's General Iroh, which ended after Iroh's son, Lu Ten, died on the front lines and Iroh was in too much in grief to continue. After King Bumi surrendered Omashu, Ba Sing Se was the last great Earth Kingdom stronghold and the last real barrier against the Fire Nation's advance. Uncle Iroh has described the city's wall as "grand". As shown in the Comic Convention 2006, Ba Sing Se is an enormous city with several rock-like monorails, similarly to the ones in Omashu although greatly scaled up and more sedate. The "cars" are moved by Earthbending. Following the events of the Season 2 finale, the government of Ba Sing Se was deposed through an internal coup d'état led by Azula. With the fall of Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom lost its last great stronghold to the Fire Nation. In the Episode "The Drill," the city's great wall is nearly penetrated by a large drill-like invention created by the Fire Nation. However, with Sokka's ideas, Aang, Katara, and Toph manage to disable the drill and ruin the Fire Nation plans. In the same episode, the name Ba Sing Se is revealed to mean "Impenetrable City," as an Earth Kingdom general jokes that it is not named "Na Sing Se" (meaning "Penetrable City").

Government
The capital of the Earth Kingdom is Ba Sing Se. While there is a central ruler of the entire Earth Kingdom, known as the Earth King, who lives in Ba Sing Se. The Earth King now is little more than a figurehead who lives a lavish lifestyle surrounded by courtesans and sycophants, lending one of his royal seals to whatever decrees and laws his advisors suggest.

In "City of Walls and Secrets," it is revealed that the Earth King has little true power, and while is greatly revered (possibly even worshiped), most of the governmental power in Ba Sing Se is trusted to various advisers and counsels such as Long Feng, the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se & Head of the Dai Li. It is also implied that the Ba Sing Se government has (or uses) little power beyond its own fortified city, which perhaps explains the dire situation in much of the Earth Kingdom.



Also, the government in Ba Sing Se appears to be incredibly oppressive, similar to a system of facism. All of the power is focused on a single dictator (Long Feng), and the level of control exhibited on the population ranges from severe economic and social regimentation, feelings of superiority over others, the idea of a utopia, and forcible elimination of opposition by methods such as brainwashing. The government of Ba Sing Se may also be incredibly bureaucratic, since it would take at least 6-8 weeks to process a request to meet with the king (though this may have been an effort to stall Aang). Its leaders also make use of sixty-seven different seals, each used on various occasions, for the approval or processing of documents and orders.

The Zoo
Flying high over Ba Sing Se, Aang lands at a small zoo looking for Appa. Looking around, he sees a wide variety of animals, all of whom are miserable in their small cages. Many of them are also partially starved and hungry. The Zookeeper tells Aang that the zoo is no longer receiving funding from the Dai Li because it is no longer popular with the children. However in a circle of troubles, nobody comes to the zoo because it does not receive the funding and is quite filthy (one of the cages shows an animal lying near multiple piles of feces). The Keeper would like nothing more than to let his animals run wild in open spaces. Aang suggests moving the animals outside to an open area just outside the city.

The animals prove much more difficult to control than Aang originally thought and they end up running wild over the city, terrorizing the citizenry. Hog-monkeys destroy a shop, various animals attack the citizens, and the Cabbage Merchant has his cabbages eaten by a Rabaroo. After trying to restore order, Aang pulls out his Bison whistle and blows a huge burst of air through it using Airbending. He then hops on an air-scooter as the animals run after him.

Meanwhile, the Zookeeper frantically tries to get the guards to open the gate. They refuse until they see the oncoming stampede. Once the gates are open, Aang reaches the other side and hops on his air scooter again. Using Earthbending, he creates a wall around the animals. He continues to Earthbend paths, secluded areas, and habitat accessories. The children and their families come flocking to the new Zoo, and the Zookeeper thanks Aang for his help. The Zookeeper tells Aang he should have a job with animals. However, the zoo animals weren't the only creatures that followed the sound of the whistle, as many cats, dogs, and half cat-half-dogs are also inside the animal pens. Afterwards, the Zookeeper decides that Aang should stick to saving people.

Culture
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.

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
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 easily disabled by Mai and Ty Lee. Their name is clearly influenced by the Latin word "Terra," literally meaning "earth."

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".


 * In "The Drill," at the arrival station where Zuko and Iroh got their passports stamped is a large sign above that says 歡迎光臨表層城 which translates as 'Welcome To Ba Sing Se.' Pronounced in Mandarin as biǎo céng chéng, Ba Sing Se (表層城) means 'outside layer city,' not impenetrable city as General Sung stated. The words 表層城 also appear in front of word University (大學) at the entrance of the school seen in City of Walls and Secrets. The opposite Na Sing Se or 'inside city' would be 內層城 (nèi céng chéng).