The Yangtze Valley and Beyond
An Account of Journeys in China, Chiefly in the Province of Sze Chuan and Among the Man-tze of the Somo Territory

A work from 1899, praised as one of the most important English literary contributions on the subject of China.

Isabella Bird (Author)

9781108013895, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 June 2010

584 pages, 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 3.3 cm, 0.73 kg

The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, first published in 1899, contains the account by the redoubtable Isabella Bird (now Mrs J. F. Bishop) of a journey through central China in 1896–1897. The volume focuses on her travels though the province of Szechuan and among the Man-tze of the Somo territory. Many of the areas she explored and carefully described were almost unknown to European visitors and had not been mentioned in any earlier English publications. The volume is based on journal letters and the diary written during her journey, and it is generously illustrated with photographs and Chinese drawings. Bishop's work was warmly received in England and praised especially for the information included on agriculture and industry. The Geographical Journal heralded the work as 'undoubtedly one of the most important contributions to English literature on that country'. It remains a key source for late nineteenth-century British perceptions of China.

1. Geographical and introductory
2. 'The model settlement'
3. Hangchow
4. The Hangchow medical mission hospitals
5. Shanghai to Hankow (Hankau)
6. The foreigners - Hankow and British trade
7. Chinese Hankow (Hankau)
8. Hankow to Ichang
9. Ichang
10. The Upper Yangtze
11. Rapids of the Upper Yangtze
12. Rapids and trackers
13. Life on the Upper Yangtze
14. The Yangtze and Kuei Fu
15. New Year's Day at Kuei-Chow Fu
16. Kuei Fu to Wan Hsien
17. Chinese charities
18. From Wan Hsien to San Tsan-Pu
19. Sze Chuan travelling
20. San-Tsan-Pu to Liang-Shan Hsien
21. Liang-Shan Hsien to Hsia-Shan-Po
22. Hsia-Shan-Po to Siao-Kiao
23. Siao-Kiao to Hsieh-Tien-Tze
24. Hsieh-Tien-Tze to Paoning Fu
25. Paoning Fu and Sin-Tien-Tze
26. Sin-Tien-Tze to Tze-Tung Hsien
27. Tze-Tung Hsien to Kuan Hsien
28. Kuan Hsien and Chengtu
29. Kuan Hsien to Sin-Wen-Ping
30. Sin-Wen-Ping to Li-Fan Ting
31. Lif-Fan Ting to Tsa-Ku-Lao
32. The 'Beyond'
33. The Man-Tze, I-Ren, or Shan-Shang-Ren
34. From Somo to Chengtu Fu
35. Downward bound
36. Luchow to Chung-King Fu
37. The journey's end
38. The opium poppy and its use
39. Notes on Protestant missions in China
Concluding remarks
Itinerary
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]