Peking, the heart of the ancient empire of China, was on its back in the year 1900, occupied by the foreign powers in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, and at the mercy of looters and exploiters. Pierre Loti, one of the most famous French writers of theage, spent nearly a year there with the French expeditionary force, and left in this book, The Last Days of Peking, an extraordinary account of the city at its moment of crisis. The writing reflects China and its culture, and the conflicting attitudes of Westerners towards the country - a weird mixture of sinophilia and sinophobia.