Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest

“ My Journal, on the contrary, was copied for the Ambassador, and lay open to the inspection of all the other Dutchmen who performed the journey.
On our return to Canton, I had the good fortune to meet with a very exact topographical chart of the city of Pe-king. The proprietor of that chart, which was already of very ancient date, would not part with it; but permitted me to take a copy. It is so particular, that every street is distinguished, and the elevation of every edifice delineated. ”

“ The rest of the suburbs, in fact, present nothing to the eye but a piece of ground very irregularly built upon, in which are plots of cultivated land, and empty spaces, so that one half of it is yet without buildings, as we had an opportunity of clearly perceiving on the fifteenth of February 1795, when we left Pe-king. ”