Table of Contents
Maps viii
Chapter 1 Through the Front Gate 1
Chapter 2 Becoming Teacher Plumblossom 9
Chapter 3 Mocky & Me 20
Chapter 4 "Say Farewell to Dangerous Housing" 35
Chapter 5 Wintertime 60
Chapter 6 A Brief History of Part One: Traces of Pre-Beijing 76
Chapter 7 The Evening News 82
Chapter 8 High Times in Happiness City 88
Chapter 9 Preserving a Sense of Place 108
Chapter 10 Springtime 131
Chapter 11 A Brief History of Part Two: The Rise and Fall of Imperial Beijing 143
Chapter 12 The Unslumming Slum 158
Chapter 13 Saving the Old Street 174
Chapter 14 A Summer of Recycling 188
Chapter 15 Past Tense vs. Future Tense 203
Chapter 16 A Brief History of Part Three: The Modernization of Republican Beijing 214
Chapter 17 Miss Zhu Remembers the Trees 231
Chapter 18 "If Someone Is Sick and You Do Not Aid Him, It Is Your Fault, Not His" 247
Chapter 19 The Widow's Story 261
Chapter 20 A Brief History of Part Four: The Industrialization of Maoist Beijing 275
Chapter 21 Echo Wall 294
Epilogue New Beijing, New Olympics 310
Acknowledgments 327
Appendix: Gazetteer 331
Notes 335
Bibliography 347
Index 357