Foreigners Within the Gates: The Legations at Peking

This fascinating book describes, through period photographs and text, the history of the foreign legations in the Chinese capital from their establishment in the 1800s to the present. More than simply a description of a place, the book conveys a lively sense of the rich social, political, economic, and religious life of a community that coexisted with--but lived apart from--the surrounding Chinese world.