ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the periods of the First and Second Opium Wars documenting the perceptions of China constructed by British travellers at this time. The First Opium War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing on 29 August 1842, in which Hong Kong was ceded as a British colony and five Chinese ports were thrown open to British trade – Amoy, Canton , Foo-chow, Ningpo , and Shang-hae. The looting and destruction of the Summer Palace was the final act of the Second Opium War. The Opium Wars were only the start of European encroachment on Chinese soil. British merchants initially attempted to export silk and cotton cloth to China to offset the trade deficit, but the Chinese were interested in neither. Robert Swinhoe described the characteristics of different Chinese 'races', in line with increasingly racist, Social Darwinist beliefs: one group were, 'ugly, with thick yellow skins; all alike dirty and odoriferous'.
