This dissertation focuses on basic documentation within an idiographic circumstance. The documenting object is dwelling courtyards in Ancient City of Ping Yao (ACPY). It explores the former similar documentation efforts and introduces the author’s own proposed documentation methodology, and follows up the later application of the methodology, and finally assesses itself. This process provided a meaningful reference sample to other practical documentation work. To better introduce the documentation methodology, the dissertation also talks about Ping Yao dwelling courtyards in detail. If the reader is interested in local residential architectures, this dissertation will be helpful. Besides referring significance of documentation method exploring, the documentation also involves deeply into ACPY’s conservation affairs, which is mainly concluded in appendix. To introduce the factors influencing this event of conservation career, this dissertation can be a record to ACPY’s conservation development in the transferring times, which can lead people who are interested to have a better understanding what is going on at the implementation level. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation