China's Imperial Way - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9622175201 ISBN 13: 9789622175204

Publisher: Panda, 1997

Synopsis

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About this title

From the Publisher

The Silk Road is the most famous trade route between China and the West, but another route, arguably more important to China's development, has gone largely unknown. This is the first book to examine the roadway that ran from Beijing in the north to Hong Kong in the south, and was used for 1,000 years by merchants, soldiers, missionaries, and diplomats. Splendidly illustrated with historical etchings by William Alexander, maps, and superb color photographs of the route today. (China Books & Periodicals)

From the Author

In front of me there were three heavy volumes. The thick leather binding crackled as I opened the largestit was almost 200 years old. On the thick rough-edged folio parchment were printed exquisite engravings portraying scenes in China from the Qing dynasty: palaces, temples, pagodas, cities, lakes and canals, together with large maps and charts of the regions.

These were the journals of Sir George Staunton, then secretary to Lord Macartney, Ambassador to the Imperial Court of China in 1793. The embassy's mission was to gain trading concessions for British traders at the port of Guangzhou (or Canton as it was known to them). They failed in their aim and subsequently travelled back from Beijing to Guangzhou overland, but Staunton's account of their journey, and of the people and sights they encountered along the route, fascinated me.

I was captivated by the sketches and drawings executed in painstaking detail by William Alexander, the brilliant young artist who accompanied the embassy. Staunton described in vivid detail the experiences of the expedition's members and their reactions to the people and sights they encountered along the way. Over a distance of 3,500 kilometres, along canals and rivers, across mountain passes and fertile lowlands, they followed a route that for centuries had been used extensively by soldiers, missionaries, merchants, travellers, traders, tributaries and diplomats. This was the Imperial Way.

For several weeks I pored over Staunton's journals at the University of Hong Kong library, enthralled by his party's journey through China. Gradually the seed of an idea grew. Apart from being an interesting and challenging route to retrace, I thought it would make excellent material for a book. Obviously things would have changed, many beyond recognition. But surely there would be some aspects of life that were much as Staunton had seen them two centuries earlier. As a photographer I was further inspired by Alexander's engravings and excited at what might be found in this vast country today.

I made detailed notes, plotting the route on maps, and gathered information about others who had journeyed along the Imperial Way hundreds of years before even Staunton arrived in China.

About eighteen months after the original idea, I travelled to China to see if my plan to walk the route was practicable. Being a keen hiker and someone not known for taking the easy option, I had given very little consideration to travelling any other way! However, I very quickly realized that if I wanted to carry sufficient film and camera equipment along with a modest change of clothes, then walking was out of the question. The exertion of carrying a backpack in thirty-eight degrees of heat very quickly sapped my enthusiasm for photography, not to mention walking. The lack of a clear walking route was another major problem. The towpaths that had once run alongside the canals, and which I planned to use, had long since disappeared.

Most travellers in China are forced to take uncomfortably overcrowded public transport, scenery flashing past the window, unable to stop en route should they see something of interest. After hiring bicycles in a few cities to explore the surrounding countryside, I realized it was possible to escape the restrictions imposed by a transport system geared to herding people en masse from one town to the next. A bicycle was the answer!

The attraction and challenge in retracing this route lies in the way it weaves together stretches of country that are far from the modern tourist trail, and little known outside China today, with some well-trodden areas and popular cities. It is a route that was once widely travelled but has now largely fallen into disuse and obscurity.

This book divides the Imperial Way into sections according to provinces which are often quite different in many ways, and presents each in a separate chapter. With a background of history, and supported by narratives and anecdotes from a variety of characters who travelled in China during five centuries, it aims to paint a picture of what life used to be like in the various regions and the important part the Imperial Way played in the lives of the people and the development of towns and cities. This is contrasted with a broad-brush present-day description, juxtaposed to short vignettes on a more personal level about experiences I had and people I met during my journey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Panda
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 9622175201
• ISBN 13: 9789622175204
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240