It is likely you are confused by the hen and egg problem of why your friend said Beijing when reading Peking. He simply skipped and ignored what was written bc he knew it was the equivalent of his own languages main capital city so he just used mandarin word for it.
![[I ate] peking duck bao](https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/pictrs/image/e177b44a-b9fa-41f4-8a53-89c48f33a3ef.jpeg){kind=link}
My Chinese friends always pronounced it like an English ‘B’. It might be regional.
It is likely you are confused by the hen and egg problem of why your friend said Beijing when reading Peking. He simply skipped and ignored what was written bc he knew it was the equivalent of his own languages main capital city so he just used mandarin word for it.
I’m talking about in conversation.