Excerpt from Li Hung-Chang The empire of China is, in a manner, separated from all the rest of the world; situated in a fine and healthy climate, surrounded by the ocean to the east and south by a chain of high rocks and barren mountains on the north and west, along which runs the famous wall as an additional defence. But what, in my opinion, is a greater security to the empire against invaders than anything yet mentioned, is the barren desert, stretching for several hundred miles westwards The seas to the south and east are indeed open, and China might be attacked on that side; buti am persuaded, no prince will think it proper to disturb his own repose, and that of such a powerful people, inclined to peace with all their neighbours, and satisfied, as they seem, with their own dominions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.