  The cornerstone of the Chinese experimental particle physics program consists
of a series of experiments performed in the tau-charm energy region. China
began building e+e- colliders at the Institute for High Energy Physics in
Beijing more than three decades ago. Beijing Electron Spectrometer, BES, is the
common root name for the particle physics detectors operated at these machines.
The development of the BES program is summarized and highlights of the physics
results across several topical areas are presented.
