Her Lotus Year: 1924 – Year of Major Changes in Peking

When Wallis arrived in Peking in December 1924 the city was in construction mode. Modern road surfacing was underway and the first tram lines, through Tiananmen from Qianmen and then along Chang’an, were laid in the forst half of the 1920s. This photograph (by American missionary Arthur H Smith) from around that time shows a steamroller laying road surface in the Tartar City….

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…