Abstract: As the main concentration area of human production and living, cities are always facing the threat of various natural disasters such as earthquakes, rainstorms, and typhoons. Strengthening the research on urban disaster prevention and reduction from a systematic point of view is an important subject for civil engineering discipline. As a new concept in the urban disaster prevention and reduction in recent years, resilient cities refer to cities that can ensure the basic living needs of residents and quickly restore their functions after various natural disasters and man-made shocks. Based on the two landmark events in the history of urban disaster prevention and reduction in China, the Tangshan earthquake and the Wenchuan earthquake, this paper conducted an in-depth analysis of a series of investigation reports on the disasters and thoroughly studied the entire process of urban destruction and recovery from the perspective of resilient city. The following work is done: 1) defining the city from a systemic perspective, defining the basic concepts and quantification methods, basic dimensions and basic features of resilient city; 2) clarifying the basic restoration process and the recovery curves after disasters; 3) revealing the phenomenon and intrinsic mechanism of spatial differentiation after urban post-disaster; 4) discussing the basic restoration process and coupling characteristics of urban lifeline systems; 5) suggesting some special infrastructure systems that have not received attention. Based on the facts, this paper not only systematically summarizes China's experience, exploration, and great achievements in the field of urban disaster prevention and reduction in the Tangshan earthquake and the Wenchuan earthquake, but also provides an effective reference for building a research and practice system for resilient cities with Chinese characteristics in the future.