1928 Peiyang Press City Plan or Map of Tientsin (Tianjin), China

Beijing's port: Foreign Concessions and 'Special Areas'.

This is a 1928 Chinese-issued Peiyang Press city plan or map of Tientsin (天津, Tianjin), China, at the start of the Nanjing Decade (1927 - 1937) of the Republican Era (1912 - 1949). This marked the last phase of the Treaty Port Era, which had predominated since the First Opium War (1839 - 1842), and was finally put to rest with the Second Sino-Japanese War/World War II.

A Closer Look

Central Tianjin is depicted, with streets, neighborhoods, waterways, and other features labeled. Red overprinting identifies the British, French, Italian, Japanese, and Belgian concessions, as well as the First, Second, and Third Special Districts. The same red overprinting marks 185 locations corresponding to a bilingual index in the accompanying booklet. The historic Chinese city, surrounded by walls until they were torn down in the wake of the Boxer Uprising, is also identified. The Russian, French, British, Italian, Japanese, and U.S. Consulates are labeled within the Concessions and Special Areas. Other identified sites include Standard Oil's installation along the Hai Ho River, the Japanese Barracks, several gardens and parks, and Woodrow Wilson Field.

Special Areas and Retrocessions

The map notes three 'Special Areas', former foreign concessions officially retroceded and/or seized by China. Following China's declaration of war on the Central Powers in 1917, Chinese forces occupied both the German and Austro-Hungarian concessions in Tianjin, terminating both extraterritorial leases. The German concession was placed under Chinese administration and formally renamed the 'First Special District' in 1919. Austria formally abandoned its extraterritorial claims in Tianjin on September 10, 1919, and Hungary did the same on June 4, 1920. The former Austro-Hungarian concessions were renamed the 'Second Special District'. The 'Third Special District' was once the Russian Concession. After the Communists took power in Russia, loyalist White Russians remained nominally in control of the Russian Concession in Tianjin, although Chinese forces occupied the Concession on September 15, 1920. The new Soviet government renounced its extraterritorial claims in Tianjin in 1924 and the concession was renamed the 'Third Special District'.

Tientsin / Tianjin Concessions

Tianjin is strategically located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Hai River or Haihe (known in contemporary Western sources as the Peiho) - thus connecting Beijing to Bohai Bay. In other words, Tianjin is Beijing's gateway to the sea, making it a critical strategic location, leading to it being targeted during the Second Opium War (1856 - 1860). The Treaty of Tientsin, which ended that conflict, opened the city to foreign trade and the establishment of extraterritorial concessions. The British and French Tianjin Concessions opened in 1860. Between 1895 and 1900, Japan, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Belgium - countries without concessions elsewhere in China - opened their own concessions. Foreign trade and investment led to Tianjin's rapid growth into one of China's most advanced and wealthiest cities.

Although heavily impacted by the Boxer Uprising (1899 - 1901), in subsequent years, Tianjin's special status as a Treaty Port allowed it to avoid much of the violence associated with the Warlord Era and various 'incidents' with Japan. Just the year before this map was issued, the city was captured by the Nationalist (Guomindang / Kuomintang / KMT) forces of Chiang Kai-Shek, helping to finalize the Northern Expedition, which loosely reunified China, albeit with central power shifting southwards to the new capital of Nanjing.

However, Japanese influence increased substantially in the 1920s and 1930s, especially given the city's proximity to Japan's expanding sphere of influence in northeastern China. On July 30, 1937, Tianjin fell to Japan during the opening weeks of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 1945, part of World War II, 1939 - 1945). Even then, the Japanese largely respected the Concessions, which were not initially occupied. Finally, in 1941, in tandem with the Pearl Harbor attacks and invasions of Western colonies in Southeast Asia, Imperial Japan occupied the American and British concessions.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by the Peiyang Press, located in Tianjin, in 1928. We have been unable to locate any cataloged examples of this edition. A second edition (also previously sold by us, OCLC 807272403) was issued in 1941 and is held by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Cartographer

Peiyang Press (北洋印字館; fl. c. 1925 – 1949) was a publisher active in Tianjin and Beijing (Beiping or Peiping at the time) before and during World War II (1939 - 1945). The press focused on books and maps for the Western traveler in China, including works in English, German, and Dutch. The company's logo included portraits of Gutenberg and Senefelder (who invented lithography). While its owners were likely Western, the staff was multinational; a 1925 directory notes a likely German manager surnamed Kleeman with both German (Niedernhofer, Kirn) and Chinese (Wang, Chi) names among the employees. Among their publications were British authors Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump’s English-language book Buddhism: The Science of Life (2nd ed., 1928), Robert M. Duncan’s Peiping Municipality and the Diplomatic Quarter (1933), a Chinese-Dutch dictionary (1935) and a 1937 album of black and white photographs of British military exercises in China. They also issued a detailed city plan, Map of Tientsin, with editions published in at least 1928 and 1941. They are known to have published at least two influential pictorial maps in English during the 1930s, Frank Dorn's iconic A Map and History of Peiping and John Kirk Sewall's A Pictorial Map of Peiping.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Slight wear on original folds. Accompanies original binder.