These photos of China were made by Thomas Child in the 1870s and 1880s, and today these pictures are a real window to old China. In May 1870 Childa was employed by the Imperial Maritime Customs Service as an engineer. He was 29 years old, he left his wife and three children and went to the capital of the late Qi dynasty, taking with him a camera.
During his 20 years in China, Thomas Child made more than 200 photographs. In his lens came temples and pagodas, roads, sculptures, bridges and pagodas, customs and people. He documented the dismantling of the palace walls, and in the comments to his photographs, which he published in foreign journals, complained of dirt in the streets, pesky insects and rats that were everywhere.
1. A street in Beijing
2. The Great Wall of China
3. Wedding palanquin
4. “The Way of Spirits”
5. The Yudaiqiao Bridge
6. The Grand Canal
7. Bronze astronomical instrument
8. The road to the Great Wall of China
9. Fountain Gate in Yuan Min Yuan
10. Zeng Jifeng and Ni Ji Gui
11. The Forbidden City
12. Wang Sho-Shan
13. Travelers on the Silk Road
14. Temple of Azure Clouds
15. Arch near the entrance to the Tombs of Ming
16. Tobacco shop
17. The Arched Bridge
