My Childhood Sweetheart, My City

In 1988, deep in a Beijing hutong, two children meet in the season when pagoda blossoms drift to the ground.

Lin Xiaodong, the son of an educated youth who returned to his hometown, is steady and witty. Su Yutong, whose parents died young, lives with her grandmother and is bright and resilient. They grow up together in the hutong and witness the changing times. At the turn of the millennium, Xiaodong heads south to Hunan for university, while Yutong stays in Beijing to study, beginning four years of longing across the distance. The elation of Beijing winning its Olympic bid and the uncertainty of choosing a path after graduation: they grow through separation and find strength in missing each other.

Two married couples and four close friends find their fates intertwined. They witness and take part in the most dramatic two decades of change in Beijing: from hutong demolitions to organic renewal, from seeking World Heritage status for the city's central axis to the digitization of culture. Each protects the city's memories in their own field: Xiaodong carries history forward through architecture, Yutong preserves everyday stories in her writing, Chen Hao uses design to create new ways of telling stories through space, and Yang Xiaoyu uses technology to connect fragments of memory.

Over more than thirty years, the old pagoda tree is moved from the hutong entrance to a memory park, and the children grow up in the city their parents have protected. The city skyline changes, but the warmth of human connection in the hutongs remains. Life changes, but the promises to stay by one another and the original ideals passed down through generations endure.

This is a story about protecting and growing: protecting a city's memories, the purity of a love, and the ideals that never fade from ordinary life. Amid sweeping changes in the times, four ordinary people use their expertise and passion to weave a vivid portrait of an era, full of everyday warmth, human connection, and the spirit of Beijing.