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Archives and old records
Chinese cities keep municipal and district archives, and much of their material — old maps, construction records, published documents — can be consulted by members of the public with ID. Files that touch on individuals, such as property titles or personnel records, are usually restricted to the people concerned or those they authorize, and some collections remain closed. Records from before 1949 often date by the Republican calendar, and records from the first years after 1949 can be thin or scattered, so researchers commonly combine several sources: archives, newspapers, maps, and the memories of residents. Each source corrects the others, and none is complete. 赵老师's advice to compare kinds of material and to try the old newspapers is standard. It is also how Alex will approach 顾阿婆's memories: as one record among several.