ENGLISH

Travels in China: Containing Descriptions, Observations and Comparisons, Made and Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen

By John Barrow

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2010
ISBN
9780511708978, 9781108013628
DOI
10.1017/CBO9780511708978
Google Books ID
u3ccRAAACAAJ
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
13 MB (13790155 bytes)
Series
Cambridge Library Collection - Travel and Exploration
Edition
Reissue
Pages
651\651
Orientation
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

In 1792, a British embassy headed by Earl Macartney travelled from Peking (Beijing), China, to Canton (Guangzou) with the aim of improving trade with China. The complete account of the mission was recorded by the Earl's private secretary, Sir John Barrow, in Travels in China (1804), a work intended to 'shew this extraordinary people in their proper colours' as well as to 'divest the court of the tinsel and tawdry varish' which Barrow thought that missionary accounts promoted. Both a paean to British imperial ambitions and a compelling example of early nineteenth-century travel literature, Travels in China presents an account of Chinese government, trade, industry, and cultural and religious practices through the eyes of one of England's most ardent expansionists. Barrow would go on to write an account of the mutiny on H.M.S. Bounty (1831), but Travels in China remained by far the more significant work in his lifetime.

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