A Residence among the Chinese: Inland, on the Coast, and at Sea: Being a Narrative of Scenes and Adventures during a Third Visit to China, from 1853 to 1856

China was still largely alien territory for westerners in the mid-nineteenth century. In this book, first published in 1857, Robert Fortune (1813–1880) describes his third visit there, but despite his relative familiarity with the country, his account is full of strange and bizarre sights and happenings. Beginning in Shanghai, where he was sent to collect tea samples for the East India Company, he describes an earthquake and the myths of its aftermath, along with his fears of becoming embro...