This book is a wonderful collection of original drawings and writings about Beijing during the past 60 years. The author is a typical senior who grew up in a big family in a traditional courtyard house (a siheyuan in mandarin). As an ordinary citizen he carefully observed and recorded the life and customs around him, and vividly describes his childhood, family life, schooling, love and marriage and work. The pictures reveal the changes in customs, attitudes, and historical figures as well as capture the changes in scenery and architecture in Beijing since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
A yellowing map of Beijing is hanging above my bedside cupboard. It was Dublished in 1 950 and was encased in a wood frame. When I am free，I love to put on my glasses to find the places I have been to on the map. but many places have changed beyond recognition. As a locally born and bred Beijing resident，I have witnessed the gradual changes in Beijing throughout the years.I am reminiscent of the past but more excited about the present and future.
In 1939，1 was born in a Siheyuan（a traditional Beijing courtyard with houses on four sides）Beijing Huanchang Courtyard and I had lived there for almost thirty years. I spent my boyhood，my teenage years and mvearly adulthood there. Each room，each tree and each rock in that courtyard have been engraved in my mind. They are still fresh in my mind today. Many things from my past seem as if they happened just yesterday，with the voices and smiling faces of my forefathers appearing in frontofme，one byone.
In 1958，I was admitted to Tsinghua University's Department of Construction Engineering. There were many leading professors of construction in the department. I was delighted to be exposed to the inexhaustible knowledge that these professors possessed. It was all awesome experlence studying at Tsinghua's Department of Construction Engineering. Students at that time had a natural love of knowledge。During those six years. I read a lot of construction-relateo boods,learned a lot about the construction field, forged a deep friendship with my fellow students，and became tighdy bound to Construction engineering。
