JEHOL: CITY OF EMPERORS. By Sven Hedin.

(ND) 1931 1st UK edition. 8vo (154 x 255mm). Ppxiv,278. B/w photograph plates, illustrations. Yellow-brown cloth, gilt titles to spine.

"Translated from the Swedish by E.G. Nash". Sven Hedin was a Swedish explorer who devoted a number of years to exploring Turkestan and the Gobi Desert". Jehol, the City of emperors, is truly a dead city. The founders of the Manchu Dynasty, K'ang Hai and Ch'ien Lung, created it as a place for hunting, military exercises, and that religious devotion which they knew so well how to combine with a certain Machiavellianism in mundane affairs. Now, its glories have almost departed and it is doomed to complete ruin in the space of a few years". Chapters include: The road to Jehol; The Potala; The flight of the Torgot; The Hsien-Kung temple-monastry; Some other temples in Jehol; The visit of the Tashi Lama to Jehol; K'ang-Hsi, the founder of the Summer Palace in Jehol; Ch'ien-Lung's court at the Summer Palace; Lord Macartney's embassy; Hsiang Fei, the concubine of an emperor; Ho Shen, an emperor's favourite; Chia-Ch'ing's death in Jehol; Hsien-Feng's death in Jehol.