Camel trains arriving at a city gate; the distinctive architecture of the Forbidden City, its pagodas, imperial buildings and temples; Manchu fashion, the Empress Dowager and the child emperor Puyi; street performers and foreign tourists;all come to life again in this extraordinary collection of rare and vintage postcards. Old Beijing: Postcards from the Imperial City offers a unique look at a vanished China and its storied capital. Comprising 355 black-and-white and hand-tinted cards that span the period from the last years of Imperial China to the Japanese invasion of 1937, it is a treasure trove for historians, collectors, Sinophiles, and anyone fascinated by people and cultures from times past.