Early books on China:

Much of the literature of western accounts of travel to China focuses on the route from Europe around Africa, across the Indian Ocean, past Malacca and Cochin China, through the South China Sea, and on the coastal ports. This was pioneered by the early Portuguese explorers such as Vasco de Gama, followed by the missionaries, mostly Jesuit, from Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Then there were the embassies and missions, including those of the Dutch and the British, led for example, by Lord Macartney and Lord Amherst, in the late 18th and early 19^th centuries.

While this was all going on, however, there was a long history of travel to China by the inland routes. This was pioneered by Russian and Siberian traders, the various tribes and societies of Central Asia, Great Tartary in European parlance, and from the North East around and beyond the Amur river.

Amongst these were official Russian missions, sent by Peter the Great and subsequent Tsars, the exchange of Archimandrites to man the Orthodox mission in Peking from the 17^th century onwards,  and later explorers, traders and official expeditions searching for new trading routes, through the 19^th century. Many were written up, in various languages and translations, and some, such as that of the Scottish physician John Bell, published in 1763, became foundational accounts in the western view of China through the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

This rich literature is available, and there has been commentary on it, but has been somewhat eclipsed by the thrust of the maritime powers in their attempts to open China to trade and European diplomacy.

An account of a number of these books can be read here, with descriptions mainly of those in my own collection.