The Peking Embassy is today, in staff terms, one of Britain's larger embassies. As well as a senior ambassador, there is a minister, three counsellors and a host of other officers. Yet the offices are cramped and overcrowded, contrasting poorly with Tokyo and Seoul, to say nothing of the grandeurs of Washington, Paris or Moscow. It was not always so, and how the present situation came about is one theme of this essay. Another is the curious manner in which the Chinese and British (and indeed most foreigners) wish to keep to their own ways has conspired to reduce mutual understanding and has led foreigners to accept a ghetto-like existence. This, while in theory designed for protection, has in practice left the foreigners exposed to the occasional outbreaks of anti-foreign feeling which mark China's recent history. Underneath all runs the tension in Sino-British relations. For the Chinese, the British were the imperialists. Until 1959, the British Embassy compound, in the heart of Peking, was a potent symbol of past humiliations. The Chinese were determined to eradicate this presence. They succeeded in 1959, although the old antagonism seems unlikely to disappear at least until the last symbol of British imperialism, Hong Kong, is restored to China in 1997.

This is not an essay in grand history or politics. Rather, it is an examination of the way in which relationships between states are affected by matters to which few normally give much consideration. Perhaps diplomatic relations are as much a matter of bluff as anything else. If so, it does matter whether the ambassador sweeps out to negotiations from a majestic compound in the heart of the city or slips away from an office well away from what matters. But Peking is changing, and China's diplomatic and economic successes in recent years may finally end the isolation of foreigners.

THE MOVING CENTRE

The British Embassy in Peking is nowadays mainly housed in two Chinese-built, western-style buildings on guanghualu in the Jianguomenwai district of Peking. one is the Ambassador's Residence, the other contains most sections of the embassy. (The cultural section – staffed from the British Council which is not formally permitted to operate in China – has moved to a new office block near the Sheraton great Wall Hotel, on the city's third ring road.)