My Splendid Concubine

a novel by Lloyd Lofthouse

Foreword by Anchee Min


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Imperial China--Nineteenth Century

 

 

Take a Virtual Tour of Nineteenth Century China and the Manchu Empire.

The Grandeur of the Ch'ing/Qing

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Columbia University

    

 

12,000 B.C. to 1911 A.D.

The MDBG dictionary was selected for the Best Free Reference Web Sites 2007 by the American Library Association.  If you enter a word in English and then click on the word in the Mandarin Pinyin column, you will hear the word pronounced in Mandarin.

 

 

 

Image ID: 205

Title: Imperial Maritime Customs House (first building)

Location: Shanghai

Estimated period: 1857-1891

Caption on print: (on the gate) Jianghai beiguan: Shanghai customs

Nature: B&W Photo

Support: Paper

Information data : The first building of the Imperial Maritime Customs was erected in 1857. It was in the form of a Chinese temple and was characteristic of the yamens (imperial offices) built at that time. The building was demolished in 1891 and a new Customs House was built. It was a brick building with a centrally placed five-story clock tower (33 m). Its red brick wall with facings of green stone were reminiscent of a British town hall in the Tudor style. Eventually, a new building was erected in 1925-1927, also with a clock-tower. When the latter was demolished, the old clock "Big Ben" was put into the present tower. (Fletcher, 1987, 1239)

Street Name: Bund

Take a trip to nineteenth century Shanghai through pictures. See where Robert Hart first worked as Inspector General of Imperial Maritime Customs. It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true, there are well over a million words written here for you to translate. The first photo was taken in 1841.

 

 

LINKS to HISTORICAL PHOTOS of CHINA

    

 

 

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