• Felice Beato (photographer)

View of the Palichao (now Baliqiao) bridge, Tung-chow (Tongzhou, also now known as Tongxian), near Peking (now Beijing), China

between 21 September and 2 October 1860

- The inscription accompanying this photograph refers to events between 18 September and 14 October 1860. On 18 September 1860, during the Second Opium War (1858-1860), 39 British and French civilians and soldiers were taken hostage by the Chinese. Among the hostages were Harry Smith Parkes, the British commissioner in Canton (now Guangzhou) and Henry Loch, private secretary to Lord Elgin, who were later released, and Captain Brabazon of the Royal Artillery, who was killed (Harris, p. 153).

Albumen silver print

comp.: 23.0 x 30.2 cm secondary support: 36.7 x 52.0 cm

PH1986:0901:017

• exterior view

inscribed - by an unknown hand, in graphite, on the secondary support, l.c.: with title numbered - by an unknown hand, in graphite, on the secondary support, l.c.: "15"

Tongzhou; Beijing; China;

• ingénierie

• guardians
• brickwork (masonry)
• statues
• baluster caps
• paving
• stone
• bridge (built work)
• arch