Book excerpt: This important social survey, first published in 192l, and illustrated with over fifty photographs and nearly forty maps and diagrams, contains invaluable data from questionnaires collected from a cross-section of the population of Peking between September 1918 and December 1919. The result is a comprehensive record of all aspects of life and conditions in the capital – from government, health and education, to commercial life, recreation, poverty and philanthropy. In the Foreword, we are reminded of the fact that ‘...the timeliness of this survey is significant. China is in the midst of a vast transition, and it is essential that the Orient, as far as possible, be saved from the costly mistakes made by the Occident.’ This landmark survey provides an invaluable point of reference vis-à-vis modern China in a period of unparalleled economic and industrial growth and social transformation.