Original Maps Sale

The knowledge of Beijing was for hundreds of years very limited outside China. Some of the first maps of the city came from the Dutchman Johan Nieuhof's embassy to China, but Nieuhof's maps were only partly based on his own experience, and the other half was pure fantasy. Much more accurate was the map of Beijing produced by the notorious cigar smoking womanizing Russian monk Bitchurin, he was was called home to Russia in disgrace, but his vast knowledge of China saved him in the eyes of tzar, but even though the vast detail in this map is impressive, the measurement of the citywall is far from accurate, that can not be said about the French engineer Henri Bouvier’s map, he arrived in Beijing to built the first French diplomatic representation in the capital when the legation quarter was established in 1862.

All of these maps along with many more are part of the former general manager of Kempinski Rene Schmidts' collection of Beijing maps. He started collecting maps more than thirty years ago, and we are very proud that he has entrusted us with preparing the Beijing part of his collection for sale. We have also taken out maps from our own collection and will altogether have around 100 maps for sale at Beijing Postcards gallery store. 

Besides Beijing maps, we will also have original China maps for sale, and many of them are rather rare, and we have only one copy.

Email us to make a reservation if you’re interested one of these original maps: info@beijing-postcards.com.