3 Review(s)

This book recounts the journey of the author undertaken in 1898-99 from European Russia to Peking (from the Baltic Sea to Gulf of Tonking). This was the time when the Trans Siberian railway has just been inaugurated and the whole of Northern Asia was pregnant with political and commercial possibilities. The author traveled on this railway till lake Baikal an thence made his way to Peking via camel, cart, mules, boat, pony and sedan chair, and took him seven months. The author had made many journeys to the North and South China in the past 20 years and served as the Times correspondent in Tongking in 1896-97. This work is his attempt to give the reader a series of impressions of the political and physical conditions that arose with the building of the railway. The book has 20 chapters many photographs and illustrations 4 maps. 19th century - Nineteenth century