Introduction

In January 1875, after a five-month journey across southern and western China in cold, wet winter weather, British diplomat Augustus Margary arrived in Bhamo, a town in what the British then called Upper Burma. He joined a British mission there as an interpreter. The mission aimed to revive the regular Burma-Yunnan trade that had been affected by the rebellions and wars in Yunnan and to explore the possibility of building a railway. The British intended to at least reach Dali, centre of the Muslim regime established after Du Wenxiu rebelled in 1856 and then proceed to Shanghai. ¹