The Yangtze Valley and Beyond

First published in 1899, this travel narrative follows Isabella Bird from Shanghai up the Yangtze through the gorges into Sichuan and on toward the Tibetan borderlands. She describes treaty ports, mission stations, junk traffic, inns, and the walled cities of western China, then the hill country, lamas, and trade routes beyond the rice plains. The prose mixes itinerary, ethnography, and remarks on administration, unrest, and foreign influence. She travels much of the way by boat and chair, often as a solitary European woman. The book is a late-Victorian journey through the upper Yangtze basin, not a political history of the Qing.

Bound in printed and image blocked blue cloth. 107 duotone photographs and 4 mono drawings. Fold-out map in corner pocket. Caligraphy blocked red slipcase.