One-man newspaper archive helps keep the memories of old Beijing alive
History enthusiast helps track changing face of city through thousands of press cuttings
A history enthusiast in Beijing has spent decades amassing a veritable treasure trove of material about the city’s past in the form of thousands of press cuttings.
Jiang Yulin, 82, a resident of Fengtai district in southern Beijing, was proud of his hobby and enjoyed showing his collections to visitors to his tightly packed home, news portal Qq.com reported on Saturday.
The grandfather has a 10 square metre room densely packed with scrapbooks into which he has pasted around 8,000 newspaper reports collected over the past three decades – a time that saw major social changes amid the country’s economic reforms.
He categorises the reports into different topics such as Beijing history, Chinese history, social development and culture.
Sometimes he also added his own notes to accompany the reports.