Liu was born on 12 December 1931 in Fuzhou, Fujian, Republic of China, with his ancestral home in Hefei.
[1] During the Second Sino-Japanese War, his family took refuge in Ningdu, Jiangxi, where he attended middle school and learned to speak English from Christian missionaries.
[3] Besides Yang Tingbao and Liang Sicheng, he was also taught by the other two of China's "Four Modern Masters in Architecture": Liu Dunzhen and Tung Chuin.
[1] After graduating in 1956, Liu spent half a century teaching and researching at the Southeast University School of Architecture.
[2][6] The book was submitted as academic evidence for the application, and the Historic Centre of Macau was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005.