English Channel

Delayed Reform （1）
Empress Dowager Cixi Going into Exile

	Deshengmen Gate was the triumphal arch for the imperial army of the Qing Dynasty. On August 15, 1900 when the Eight－Power Allied Forces stormed into Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi, disguised as a peasant woman, went into exile from here. It was a rainy day.

Delayed Reform （2）
Empress Dowager Cixi Returning to Beijing

	Alfred von Waldersee, commander of the Eight－Power Allied Forces, stayed at the Hall of Virtuous Phoenix in Zhongnanhai for a period of time. This was Empress Dowager Cixi´s favourite residence. The gorgeous hall was burned down in a big fire at midnight on April 17, 1901. Not a single photo of the hall was left behind.

Delayed Reform （3）
The Natural Feet Movement

	This was a big family who lived at the beginning of the 20th century. The girl in the photo looked innocent, but she had bound feet. A pair of feet, a jar of tears. Keeping bound feet had been the lot of Chinese women for more than one thousand years since the Song Dynasty. Eighty－two－year－old Ha Shuqin has painful reminiscences.

Delayed Reform （4）
Sending Students Abroad

	Rong Hong, a Chinese, was buried at a cemetery in Hartford, capital of Connecticut, USA. In 1872, he headed more than 120 Chinese children coming to the United States. This was the first group of Chinese students sent by the Qing government to study abroad.

Delayed Reform （5）
Abolishing Imperial Examinations

	When many students went abroad to carry on their studies, imperial examinations of the Qing Dynasty were not terminated. In 1904, the last palace examination was held in Beijing. The name of Liu Chunlin was carved on the stone tablet of metropolitan graduates as the top winner of the first group.

Delayed Reform （6）
Encouraging Industrialists

	At the beginning of the 20th century, China´s cigarette market was monopolized by British and American tobacco companies.In 1905, overseas Chinese Jian Zhaonan and his brother Jian Yujie founded the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company Ltd. in Hong Kong. Their cigarettes were packed with distinctive national features.

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