Into the middle
kingdom. Peasants cross the bridge linking China with Tibet in the
southwest province of Yunnan. Traditional Chinese belief held that
all roads into China led from barbarism into civilization. China or
the 'Middle Kingdom' as it was known, was presented by its rulers and
its elite of scholars and officials as the true axis of the culture.
By comparison, all other countries were intellectually and
spiritually impoverished. China preferred isolation. The country's
landscape remained unaffected by the outside world for centuries -
suspension bridges like this had existed in China for a thousand
years before this photo was taken around 1900. Photo by Auguste
François.
