Map/Chart > Charts in the Locker
A Plan of the City of Peking [Beijing]
Peking and the Forbiden Cit in 1843 just after the first 'Opium War' with Britain. This beautiful Plan of the city is remarkable for it's Chinese and English text.
|Hydrographer/Surveyor/Artist:||Major Thomas Best Jervis (publisher), Samuel Birch (translations)|
|Size Of Original:||w123cm x h103cm (w48" x h40")|
|Paper Type||Cotton Rag 280gsm|
A large and rare, hand colored, 19th Century plan of the Tatar, or Inner City Nuyching and the Imperial Palace Kingtoo of Peking, or Chun Thein Foo (Beijing) as it was known in 1843. This was the Northern residence of the Court , or Capital of the Chinese Empire.
The Plan seen here was one of several surveys put together by the British, after the outbreak of the first Opium War in China (3 November 1839 to 29 August 1842), when it was evident that little was really known about the region in a Europe which was already greedy for trade Imperialistic opportunities. The plan's legend on the top right explains in full it origins.
It is one of the most detailed and accurate plans of the old city, still accurate today over 165 years later. As with many other cartographic works the plan is an amalgamation of previous works, in this case four: A Plan brought from Peking from an Italian Missionary who had recently returned from Peking possibly Gaubil; An early (18th century) French plan of 1758 by the eminent French geographers Delisle and Pingre, based on information provided by Jesuit missionaries; A Russian plan of the city in 1812 completed by Father Hyacinth and finally, a more contemporary wood-cut brought from China by the missionary M.Gutzlaff.