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China - Reys-Kaerte vande Ambassade der Nederlantse Oost Indis Compagnie, door China aen den Grooten Tartersen Cham.
The map shows the route that the Dutch Ambassadors of the Dutch East India Company took to visit the Emperor of China. From Macao they went to Canton then meandered their way along canals to Peking. The cities and towns they passed are noted in great detail. The map is highly decorative and is adorned with elephants, camels, horses and other animals among trees and beside mountains. The Great Wall appears in the north with the legend wall 300 miles length. The major rivers are shown. From Nieuhoff's book :-' "Embassy of the Dutch East India Company to the Grand Tartar Cham", published 1665 in Amsterdam. The Embassy started from Batavia and reached Canton in 1655, proceeded to Peking and returned to Java in 1657.
The Dutchman Jan Nieuhoff accompanied the Dutch mission to China from Jakarta in 1655. Nieuhoff provided an account of the embassy which was published by Van Meurs’ in Amsterdam in 1665. It contained a map and some of the earliest illustrations to appear in Europe of the Chinese hinterland and interior and of China and its Cities. It was the most important European source of information about China in the seventeenth century. His work proved exceptionally popular, being translated into French, German and English in the following years.
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