Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Sketch Map to elucidate recent exploration on the TIBETO-CHINESE FRONTIER
- ILLUSTRATIONS and MAPS to VOL. I
- Errata in Vol. I
- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
- CHAPTER I ‘OVER THE SEAS AND FAR AWAY’
- CHAPTER II ‘CHINA'S STUPENDOUS MOUND’
- CHAPTER III ‘ATHWART THE FLATS AND ROUNDING GRAY’
- CHAPTER IV ‘A CYCLE OF CATHAY’
- CHAPTER V THE OCEAN RIVER
- CHAPTER VI THE GORGES OF THE GREAT RIVER
- CHAPTER VII CH'UNG-CH'ING TO CH'ÊNG-TU-FU
- CHAPTER VIII A LOOP-CAST TOWARDS THE NORTHERN ALPS
- CHAPTER IX A LOOP-CAST TOWARDS THE NORTHERN ALPS—continued
- Plate section
CHAPTER I - ‘OVER THE SEAS AND FAR AWAY’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Sketch Map to elucidate recent exploration on the TIBETO-CHINESE FRONTIER
- ILLUSTRATIONS and MAPS to VOL. I
- Errata in Vol. I
- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
- CHAPTER I ‘OVER THE SEAS AND FAR AWAY’
- CHAPTER II ‘CHINA'S STUPENDOUS MOUND’
- CHAPTER III ‘ATHWART THE FLATS AND ROUNDING GRAY’
- CHAPTER IV ‘A CYCLE OF CATHAY’
- CHAPTER V THE OCEAN RIVER
- CHAPTER VI THE GORGES OF THE GREAT RIVER
- CHAPTER VII CH'UNG-CH'ING TO CH'ÊNG-TU-FU
- CHAPTER VIII A LOOP-CAST TOWARDS THE NORTHERN ALPS
- CHAPTER IX A LOOP-CAST TOWARDS THE NORTHERN ALPS—continued
- Plate section
Summary
Why not China?
Such, were the words addressed to me by a friend I met in Trafalgar Square early in May 1876.
Up to this moment I had never thought of China. My attention had never been directed to it, and my notions regarding it were crude in the extreme: dim ideas of pigtails, eternal plains, and willow trees; vague conceptions of bird's-nest soup and puppy pies. I had never been particularly attracted to the country, and naturally replied, ‘Why should I go to China?’
At the time I gave the matter no further consideration, and it was with some surprise that, a fortnight later, I was met with the same question; this time, however, my friend had some reasons to adduce, the result of which was that, on June 26, a fine breezy morning, I stood on the deck of the Ostend steamer lying in Dover harbour.
A fresh north-easterly breeze just crisped the tops of the waves, and a bright sun lighted up the Dover cliffs as they gradually merged into the mist. For the first time for many days, I had time to think, and when at last the cliffs were lost to view, I seemed to have launched into a new and unknown sea; for whither fate would lead my steps I could not say: all that was definite was, that I was going to Peking.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The River of Golden SandThe Narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burmah, pp. 1 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010