Foreword In the past my books have been published only in text form. Occasionally I have used a few photos for supplementary purposes. But, at the request of the Jiangsu Art Publishing House, I have recently completed this book, Old Beijing, which contains both text and pictures. The commissioning editor of the publishing house told me that the theme and style would have no limits set by them. So I decided that the book should be composed of three parts. The first part would be written in chronological order. It would be a history of Beijing from the "Ji" period of three thousand years before to the late Qing dynasty ( 1644-191 1 ) and the early Republic of China (191 1-1949) in the early 20th century. The second part would be a description of life in Beijing during the late Qing and early Republic period. And the third part would concentrate on the characteristics of Beijing and its people in the past. After hearing these ideas, the commissioning editor, while praising them as "rather ambitious" , expressed his concern that it would be impossible to get any good photos to illustrate the first part. Without much thinking, I wrote the first part in one stretch. But when I reread it, my own brows began to knit. Where on earth can we find photos for the Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming dynasties, not to say the period of Ji? Before the publishing house made any further comments, I gave this direction up. I had to start all over again. For a couple of days, I took pains to work out a new plan, but that would not do; then another, but that would not work either. I had never had such experiences in writing in the past. Helpless, I faced my bookcases and began scanning books. Suddenly my eyes fell on a book en- titled Is This Beijing? , compiled by Jiang Mingde. It is a col- lection of articles about the city written by some elderly lite- rati residing in Beijing. The articles were published between 1919t0 1949. I opened the book and began to read the Editor's Note. Mr. Jiang described what he had seen when he first entered Beijing: "The train drove straight into the Qianmen Gate Railway Station. When I got off, I looked up at Jian Lou (Arrow Tower) for quite some time. Then I had a bowl of bean curd at a little food stall. Suddenly several little beggars, dressed in tatters, came up to me, stretching out their hands for help." Great! My book could start by following Mr. Jiang into Beijing. Among several hundred photos collected by the publishing house from many sources, I was able to find a photo of the Arrow Tower in a sleet storm. The photo had been taken from an upward angle. Nearby there was a food stall with an awning over it. Perfect! It was just my day. In recent years, I have made a study of both Peking opera and well-known commercial establishments, and from this, my interest has grown to all aspects of local cul