This volume offers a comprehensive portrait of Qing-era Beijing, tracing its political, economic, and cultural evolution. It examines the refinement of the Forbidden City and its political functions, the rise of the western suburbs' imperial gardens and garden-based governance, and the formation of the inner and outer city communities with their distinct social structures.

The book also explores the feudal peerage system and princely mansions, the Eight Banner system and the daily lives of bannermen, the emergence of the “Southern Scholar Town” (Xuannan) and its guild halls, and the commercial rise of the Dashilan district. Other topics include urban administration, the provision of water, energy, and food, as well as Beijing's engagement with foreign science, technology, culture, and trade. Taken together, these threads present a complete picture of Beijing during the Qing Dynasty for the modern reader.

WU Jianyong, Research Fellow and former Director of the Institute of History at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences; member of the National Editorial Committee for the Qing History; and Honorary Council Member of the Beijing Research Institute of Culture and History.