We have up to now countless explorations,domestic and international,humanistic and academic,of Sino-Western contact and mutual reception across the ages.But these explorations,especially those published in Chinese,are seldom directed to a particular Chinese city,like Guangzhou(Canton),Wuhan,Shanghai,or Beijing(Peking);though in Western research such a focus is not lacking.Many great Chinese cities have played pivotal roles in Sino-foreign cultural exchange,e.g.,Xi'an(Chang'an)during the Tang,Beijing(Dadu)during the Yuan,Ming,and Qing,and Shanghai in modern times,and they should be given their due attention in academic studies.In particular,Western civilization,and its relations with and impact on Beijing—the capital of various Chinese dynasties and a genuine international cosmopolis since the Yuan dynasty—is not something we should take for granted.I have lamented the absence of books like Paris dans la litterature Americaine by Jean Meral(1983)in the context of China,and the publication of Ancient Beijing and Western Civilization(Gudai Beijing yu Xifang wenming 古代北京與西方文明,2019)has filled the void with much success.Ouyang Zhesheng's book is a panoramic study of Beijing from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries and its cultural exchanges with the West(actually limited to Europe),based on various accounts of the actual Beijing experience of the Westerners.