Kuriose Details der ersten Kontaktaufnahme Königs George III. mit dem Kaiser Chinas am 26. September 1792

On 26 September 1792, King George III dispatched the first British trade mission to China, a 700- strong party.
that included

1. diplomats,
2. businessmen,
3. soldiers,
4. scientists,
5. painters,
6. a watchmaker,
7. a gardener,
8. five German musicians,
9. two Neapolitan Chinese priests
10. a hot-air balloon pilot.

Packed into three substantial ships, they brought with them the most impressive fruits of recent Western scientific progress — telescopes, clocks, barometers, airguns and, naturally, a hot-air balloon — all intended to dazzle the Chinese emperor, Qianlong, into opening trade with the West, by convincing him that he and his 313 million people needed Britain’s technological marvels.

Weiterlesen:
Royal Academy of Arts