Hou Renzhi (1911-2013) was an important intellectual who contributed a lot to the birth of modern historical geography in China in the former half of the 20th century and shaped the trend of its development in the following decades. Though trained as a historian in his early years, Hou devoted most of his time to geographical research and produced many works on urban geography, desert geography and some other fields, which made him elected academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980. Geographical research on Beijing marked the arch of his academic achievements.