PREFACE

Summary

PARTLY to while away the tedium and monotony of a long sea voyage from China to England, and partly to redeem a promise made before leaving that country, the following narrative of a somewhat novel ride through one of the most distant regions of the great Chinese empire was written for publication.

Much as its southern portion has been explored and described, little in reality is known regarding the far north, more especially of those hitherto inaccessible districts which border on, or lie beyond, that marvellous monument of human industry—the Great Wall, in its course along the eastern margin of Old China.

It is therefore hoped that an attempt to describe the general features of the country, and the special characteristics of the northern Chinese—differing as they do very widely from their brethren of the south—together with the incidents inseparable from the wanderings of two adventurous Britons travelling in their proper costume, for nearly seven hundred miles, among a people to whom the existence of such a place as Great Britain was unknown—may prove in some degree interesting. It may be a long time before Europeans will again venture so far as from the vicinity of Peking to the birthplace of the Mantchu dynasty, and journey unscathed through the fair provinces that exist between the two capitals, inhabited by thousands of an industrious race, to whom rebellion and its attendant horrors are unknown.