Isabella Bird was one of the greatest travelers and travel writers of all time, and this is her last major book, a sympathetic look at inland China, the Yangtze River valley, Sichuan and beyond into Tibet at the end of the 19th century. The journey is divided into three parts: up the river from Shanghai to Wanzhou, overland from there to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and then into the no-man¡¯s land of eastern Tibet. Along the way, Isabella provides a rich mix of observations and information in a very readable way. She describes two occasions when she is almost killed by anti-foreign mobs, and her use of understatement is often amusing, and very much in character for a no-nonsense Victorian woman. She walks over two suspension bridges in Sichuan province which were "on their last legs" and says "the crossing was not agreeable".

Who is ISABELLA L. Bird?

Isabella Bird was born in Yorkshire in 1831, the daughter of a clergyman. She made many dangerous and extraordinary journeys, including to Hawaii, East Asia, India, Tibet, Turkey and Morocco. She wrote many travel books of which The Yangtze Valley And Beyond is one of the best. She died in Edinburgh in October, 1904.