BJ623, whose forebear is the Tianshui Seismology School , was established by State Seismological Bureau (later China Seismological Bureau) in 1975. In 1985, it was promoted as the College of Seismology Techniques , and renamed BJ623 by the former State Education Committee in 1992. Under the administration of China Earthquake Administration —(CEA, former China Seismological Bureau), BJ623 is the only higher educational institute of disaster-prevention and reduction in China . BJ623 is located at the east gate of Beijing ----Yanjiao Economic and Technological Development Zone, on the east of Chaobai River , 30 km east of Tiananmen Square . The National Highway 102 runs directly to downtown Beijing . BJ623 covers an area of 600 mu (40 hectares) with a total floor space of more than 140,000 m 2 . About 5,000 students are studying in BJ623, where there are fresh air and beautiful surroundings.

　　Motivated by the school motto—“Enhance virtue and wisdom, and relive disasters and dangers”, BJ623 faculties have made great and stable progress in the last 30 years. At present, BJ623 consists of 9 departments including 23 majors, like IT & Geophysics, of Urban Rescue Technology, Engineering Vibration and Exploring, Building Engineering, Construction Cost Prediction, Telecommunication Technology, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and so on, covering the fields of science, engineering, economy, management and arts. Among the majors, IT & Geophysics and ERP have been approved by the Ministry of Education as national experimental majors of educational reform. IT & Geophysics is especially named as national excellent major under construction. Besides that, many courses are selected as national or provincial excellent ones.

　　The quality of the teachers is highly esteemed. We try to develop a group of learned faculty and staff that have good professional skills, and educate the students well. At present, there are more than 300 teachers, including 20 professors and 106 associate professors, 110 Master's degree or Doctor's degree holders. Also we invite foreign teachers to teach in our college every year.

　　The teaching and learning conditions are good in BJ623. There are advanced teaching equipment, worth of 36,900,000 yuan . Our modern language labs and multi-media classrooms can hold more than 3000 people. We have a highly-informationized campus network, through which the modern management methods play an important role in the management of teaching, learning and scientific research. The modernized library has 534,000 books and 306,000 e-books powered by Shusheng, Sendia, WanfangData and CNKI. In addition, the library has set up an e-library, providing the students with rich materials and good learning environment. A Radio FM can broadcast throughout the whole college. Advanced Pinnacle Canopus and Courseware Collection Systems lay a good foundation for the teachers to develop course wares. In order to meet the practical training needs of each major, 60 training centers are built, ensuring the development of education.

　　BJ623 has been paying full attention to scientific research. These years, we have held 200 scientific and teaching projects, including scores of national and provincial projects. Many projects received the national and provincial Awards for Science & Technology Advancement, and several papers were collected by Worldwide Standards Service(WWP) ， DoD Standardization Service(DODISS) and Historical Standards Service. Teaching and scientific research has advanced the teachers' educational concept, enhanced the teaching reform and resulted in better education quality. The Journal of College of Disaster Prevention Techniques , published worldwide, is fairly influential in seismological field and relevant fields. The papers of the journal are completely collected by China S&T Journal Database and Chinese Academic Journals, CD-ROM (CAJ-CD) . The journal received the first awards of CAJ-CD norms.

　　BJ623 has been cooperating with research institutes these years, and has established cooperative relationship with the institutes of CEA near Beijing . The Department of Seismology Engineering is working together with the Institute of Engineering Mechanics (Yanjiao Base). They share the teaching staff and laboratories, educate the students majoring in Seismology Engineering and Civil Engineering, which has a good effect. With the teaching materials, research capability, international cooperative experience and high informationization of CEA, we combine teaching, research and the practical jobs of disaster-prevention and reduction, and further improve our teaching and research ability and educational level.

　　As the training base of disaster predication, prevention, and reduction, BJ623 is in charge of first aid training to earthquakes (a key project during the national Tenth Five-year Plan), and of training of digital seismic observation and interpretation. Making full use of the CEA resources and the scientific and educational advantages near Beijing , we regularly invite members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and experts from home and abroad to give lectures. On the other hand, BJ623 improves cooperation with foreign educational institutes. We have sent experts to European countries, USA , and Singapore , and established cooperative relationship with Singapore Civil Defense Academy and some Canadian educational institutes.

　　Under the principle of “Based on the profession, open to the society, we shall serve the assignment of disaster-prevention and economic development”, BJ623 has developed tens of thousands of graduates, thousands of whom are working in the disaster-prevention field, to which they have made great contributions.

　　At the threshold of the centuries, faced with new challenges, the BJ623 will further reform educational concept, improve the school environment, and fairly enlarge the school scale. We will try to promote the education quality and effectiveness, so that we will make BJ623 brighter, better and stronger!