Guide to Peking and its Environs.

Tianjin: The Tientsin Press,, 1909. With three meticulous maps and plans First edition, first printing, of this uncommon tourist guide to Beijing at the twilight of the imperial era. While the second edition (1924) is well-represented in commerce, the first is much scarcer. Guide to Peking and its Environs was published on the cusp of a sea change in East Asian tourism, heralded by Thomas Cook opening its office in Shanghai in 1910. Cook's arrival signalled a shift toward "package" tourism - visitors following prearranged itineraries while looked after by the company's agents on the ground. In contrast to Cook's pared-down guides, Fischer includes everything the independent traveller might need, such as in-text Chinese characters to help travellers ask locals for directions. The three maps offer a level of detail at odds with other similar publications. Fischer is keen to remind visitors to keep their artistic tendencies at bay: "It is hoped that when visiting tombs and places of interest in and about Peking, or in China generally, visitors will refrain from writing [on] or in anyway defacing the buildings and other places of interest" (p. 8). Small octavo. Half-tone frontispiece and 27 plates, 3 folding maps and plans. Original red illustrated wrappers, rebacked to style with red card, front cover lettered in gilt, rear cover lettered in black. Rubbing and creasing, maps at rear tipped back in on new tissue stubs, one map with old adhesive tape repair on verso: a very good copy.