| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article uses Chinese and Russian sources to relate the visit of a Chinese diplomatic mission headed by Anson Burlingame, Zhi Gang, and Sun Jiagu to St. Petersburg. It reveals unknown details about this visit showing that the Russian government received the Chinese delegation at the highest level, observing all the rales and standards of diplomatic etiquette of that time. It was in St. Petersburg that the mission leader, American diplomat Burlingame, passed away, requiring his immediate replacement. This first official mission of the Qing Empire to a Western country was a milestone in the development of relations between Russia and China and helped to bring them up to a qualitatively new level by paving the way to establishing China's permanent embassy in Russia.
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