China

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Harry A. Franck's vivid travel narrative opens China not as a distant mystery, but as a living civilization he has known through years of hard journeying, close contact with ordinary people, and firsthand observation. With photographs and an educator's purpose, he invites readers to see the Chinese as fellow human beings and to understand how study of other nations can foster respect and peace. From that starting point, the book ranges across the country's immense regions, customs, language, schools, foreign enclaves, rivers, coastlines, and minority peoples. It presents China as the oldest surviving member of the family of nations, yet one thrown into confusion after the fall of the empire in 1911, when warlords and weak central authority divided the republic. Franck contrasts China proper with Manchuria, Mongolia, Sinkiang, and Tibet, explaining customs through history and environment while stressing the need for education, literacy, and reform. His journey carries him through Manchuria's crowded streets, Russian and Japanese influences, the Great Wall, and remote northwestern cities like Lanchow, before turning to the Chinese calendar and the great New Year festival, where ancestral rites, temple fairs, firecrackers, and family reunions reveal both the beauty and burdens of Chinese life.