Beijing Electron-Positron Collider ( BEPC) completed its first successful operation on October 16, 1988.“It was hailed as another major scientific achievement next to China’s successful development of man-made satellites, nuclear”and hydrogen bombs and other achievements.

The construction of the positive and negative electron collider is the largest project in China’s history. It was proposed by the Chinese American scientist Tsungdao Lee when he first came back home in 1972, and was also the last project with instructions from Premier Zhou Enlai just before he passed away. The project broke ground in October 1984 and was completed in four years, marking major progress in Chinese science and technology.

The collider consists of five parts: accelerating electron and positive electron accelerator; high-speed electron and positive electron storage rings; detector for collision analysis; synchronized radiation experimental zone for research and use of the constant rays released by high-speed electrons and positive electrons; and computer center for analysis and calculation of the whole process with fast computer. As a complicated systematic engineering comprised of hundreds and thousands of sophisticated special equipments, its success indicated each equipment, the quality of components, the skill of installing and testing have entered the international advanced level of the 1980s.

The success of China’s first high-energy accelerator Beijing electron-positron collider evoked strong repercussion in domestic science and technology circles and also created a stir in the international high-energy physics. Many renowned highenergy physicists in the world said that the success of Beijing electron-positron collider was a great progress in scientific development of China and also a milestone in the development of high-energy physics.