Author Description

Originally published in 1934 and written by the Curator of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, this is an informative and highly entertaining account of the author's several expeditions to Northern China. Andersson began his Chinese explorations as a mining consultant, switched to paleontology as a wealth of fossils surfaced with the mining ore, and finally turned his attention to archaeology. It was on one of his expeditions that the now-famous "Peking Man" was discovered. Accounts of further discoveries of prehistoric villages, graves, pottery, and temples are interspersed with descriptions of China's geology and topography and amusing accounts of his adventures with the not-always-hospitable natives. For the reader of today, Andersson's book offers not only an insight into prehistory but a fascinating glimpse of the China of forty years ago.