About 1500 years ago, Emperor Tuo-ba-hong of the Bei-wei Dynasty moved his capital from Ping-cheng, in Shan-xi province to Luo-yang. Questions were raised as to why he decided to relocate his capital. Was it because of political, economic, military and cultural factors? Or was it because of his Han-cultured personality that drove him to do so? Or was it because of the cold climate? Three sets of analyses were performed to seek answers to these questions. The first analysis examines the climatic situation by using temporal surface meteorological records. The second analysis infers the ancient climatic environment based on poems and historical documents. The third analysis looks at evidence provided by tree-ring, ice core and lake sediment data available over the time span going as far back as the Bei-wei dynasty. The results from these three approaches revealed that the climate of Ping-cheng in the past was colder than the present situation. The mean minimum temperatures are estimated to be lower by 0.82℃ during 408AD-537AD and by 2.66℃ during 479AD-509AD respectively when compared with the present In evaluating climate change, it is suggested that both qualitative and quantitative methods should be used as analytical tools for the reconstruction of historical climate in the past 2000 years.