Hi Helen You've asked a good question because, while the two words 'close and near' are similar when talking about a distance, they have different meanings and usages in some cases. It would take several pages to explain the different meaning and usages, but here is a very good concise (brief) explanation: http://random-idea-english.blogspot.ca/2014/06/confusing-words-near-nearby-close-next.html You will see that your sentence can be written as: which city is the nearest to Beijing, OR which city is the nearest Beijing So, both ways are correct. Usually, I would write "which city is the nearest Beijing".

Nope. It has to be "nearest to Beijing."