From Pekin to Calais by Land

The preface says that two Englishmen at present living in Shanghai have travelled overland from Europe to China, and that the writer was told these gentlemen are continually receiving letters from England asking for information relative to the journey from Petersburg to Pekin. The writer says the coast lying between Chefoo and the mouth of the Peiho river is strikingly like parts of Devonshire. The writer says that at daybreak on the 3rd of June the travellers passed the celebrated Taku forts and entered the Peiho river.

The text says the thought that when next they saw the sea, it would be at Calais, made them realize, perhaps more than they had as yet done, the difficulty and length of the voyage they had undertaken across the breadth of Europe and Asia. The text describes three mounted Mongols who rode out of the dusk and, galloping furiously past the caravan, disappeared in the direction the travellers were going. The text says all went merry as a marriage bell for two days after leaving Nijni Udinsk, the weather, though cold and frosty at nights, remaining bright and fine.