A Belgian Passage to China (1870-1920)
From 1870 to 1914, Belgium - one of the major financial and industrial powers at the time - financed, built and operated hundreds of kilometers of trains and tram lines across the five continents.
The Western sense of supremacy and King Leopold II's urge to colonize were the driving force behind the companies in this country. In China, this adventure resulted in the construction of the railway between Beijing and Hankou and a tram network in Tianjin.
"A Belgian passage to China (1870-1930)" highlights two projects. François Nuyens left Ghent for Tianjin in 1905, where he built a power station and a tram network. In a well-documented diary, Nuyens records his impressions of his stay in China between 1905 and 1908.
The brothers Philippe and Adolphe Spruyt, both doctors, traveled to China to provide medical service at the yards of the Beijing-Hankou railway line. They returned with suitcases full of Chinese antiques. Their interesting correspondence and more than 1,200 photographic glass plates offer a unique insight into the daily life of China in the early twentieth century.
Caractéristiques
Auteur : | Johan Mattelaer, Mathieu Torck |
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Présentation : | 306 pages, 23 x 30.5 x 3.4 cm, relié |
Illustration : | abondamment illustré |
Editeur : | Sterck & de Vreese (NL, 2020) |
ISBN: | 9789056156442 |