Studies on the thin-film multilayer structures of tunnel junction (S/I/S′) and proximity tunnel junction (S/N/I/S′) geometries are presented (S: HTSC, S′: LTSC, N: normal material, I: insulator). The observed tunnel and Josephson characteristics are reported and discussed. A new tunneling model taking the special features of high Tc superconductors into account is proposed to interret the observed data. Some data on the proximity tunneling effect are also presented.