Korea and her Neighbours
A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country

Indefatigable traveller Isabella Bird visited Korea at a time of increasing foreign influence, and published her observations in 1898.

Isabella Bird (Author)

9781108045759, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 March 2012

310 pages, 22 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

Isabella Bird (Mrs Bishop, 1831–1904) was recommended an open-air life from an early age as a cure for her physical and nervous difficulties. Her accounts of travel in America, Hawaii, Japan and Persia were best-sellers. This two-volume work, first published in 1898, was one of the books arising from Bird's visit to Korea and China between 1894 and 1897, the other being The Yangtse Valley and Beyond (1899), also available in this series. Korea was a battleground during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–5, and subsequently became increasingly dominated by Japan, being annexed fully in 1910. Bird provides vivid descriptions of the Korean people, their way of life and customs at a time when the country had only recently opened up to the West. In Volume 1 she gives her first impressions of Seoul, and travels down the Han river, commenting especially on the lowly position of women.

Preface
Introductory chapter
1. First impressions of Korea
2. First impressions of the capital
3. The Kur-Dong
4. Things in Seoul
5. An outfit. A Korean sampan
6. The Han and its neighbourhood
7. The Han and its people
8. Natural beauty. The rapids
9. Korean marriage customs
10. The Korean pony. Korean roads and inns
11. The monasteries of the Diamond Mountain
12. From Chang-An Sa to Wön-San
13. Impending war. Excitement at Chemulpo
14. Newchwang. Manchuria
15. A Manchurian deluge. Muk-Den
16. Muk-Den
17. Excitement at Muk-Den
18. Nagasaki. Wladivostok.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]