Lin arrived in mainland China from Taiwan in the late 1970s, when China's reform and opening up just started. Since then, his life and work have been closely tied to Peking University, to which he has long held sincere gratitude.

After obtaining his Master's degree in political economy from Peking University in 1982, Lin began his overseas study at the University of Chicago, where he was instructed by Theodore W. Schultz, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, as the last doctoral candidate supervised by Professor Schultz.

I. A Student of "Unknown Origin" Enrolled by Peking University

When Lin arrived in Beijing, he received a warm reception from Yu Qiuli, the then Vice Premier of the State Council and the Director of the State Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China. Lin expressed his desire to study at Peking University, and the Ministry of Education later made arrangements for him with Peking University. In fact, Lin's keen interest to study at Peking University was first ignited by his middle school geography teacher, Mr. Yang, who was born and grew up in Beijing and later moved to Taiwan and settled down in Yilan City. Mr. Yang often told interesting historical stories behind some geographical terms in his class, making the geography lectures rather fascinating. In his class, Lin learned a lot about Beijing and heard many anecdotes about Peking University. He started to yearn for studying in the birthplace of the 1919 May Fourth Movement.