The paper reviews several methods of simulation used in this country to recover currenttectonic stress field related to earthquake occurrence in North China. The aim is to evaluatethe degree of seismic risk around Beijing area. The methods used are computational ormathematical simulation by the finite element method and experimental or physical simulationby the photoelastic method and the grid method. The results obtained by these methods arebriefly described. Most simulations indicate that Beijing is not a region of seismic risk. The paper reviews several methods of simulation used in this country to recover currenttectonic stress field related to earthquake occurrence in North China. The aim is to evaluatethe degree of seismic risk around Beijing area. The methods used are computational ormathematical simulation by the finite element method and experimental or physical simulation by the photoelastic method and the grid method. The results obtained by these methods are briefly described.