The longstanding and complex housing issues in Beijing's historic urban districts present an extraordinary challenge: safeguarding traditional architectural character while continuously improving living conditions.

Drawing on over a decade of field research, this book proceeds with vivid cases at three scales - household, courtyard, and neighborhood - to document current conditions and evolution of living spaces as well as everyday life in Beijing's historic districts since 2000 through accessible language and rich pictures and analyzes in-depth the root causes of urgent problems through related policy and practice. It also has a holistic analysis of population, housing, public funding input, retrofitting toolkit, tenant mix and governance. The study specifically expounds six critical issues and four typological boundaries, proposing regenerative strategies that emphasize balanced preservation approaches, welfare baseline guarantees and targeted improvements for vulnerable residents.

Finally, it presents the long-time research by Tsinghua University's School of Architecture and Department of Sociology, featuring typical cases like Shichahai precinct, Yandai Xiejie alleyway and Dashixiaoshi hutong. Providing groundbreaking methodologies for addressing systemic challenges in China's historic neighborhoods, areas and old residences, this work offers both immediate practical value and long-term theoretical significance.