Foreign adventurers have been tramping around China for centuries. This book presents some of the best of the stories from the dozens of travel memoirs published, particularly in the golden era of the late nineteenth century. These accounts, abridged and explained, concentrate on the gripping details with a constant commentary on the significance of what is being recounted. They are a window into old China and also into the mentality of the adventurers. Lost China is a digestible and exciting way of meeting some of the greatest travelers of a bygone age.