In Search of Old Peking

In Search of Old Peking is much more than a classic guide book: it is both a painstakingly constructed portrait of one of the world’s great cities in the 1930’s and a lament for the end of a unique era. L.C. Arlington was an American who had served in the Customs and Postal Administrations since his arrival in China in 1879; William Lewisohn, a British Army officer turned journalist. These unlikely but happy partners had seen Peking at the pinnacle of its glory. This book is the outcome of their determination to record the delights, both major and minor, of the city they had known. The descriptions of the buildings and monuments are set within the wider context of Chinese history and are entertainingly illuminated by anecdotes about northern Chinese life and customs. First published in 1935, this book was regarded as the standard guide to Peking. It remains astonishingly evocative today, for residents and visitors alike.