page_title: Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
section_title: Embassy to China
hierarchical_section_title: Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest / Embassy to China
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing route of Titsingh embassy to the Imperial Court in Peiking, traveling from Canton and returning, 1794-1795; an illustrative plate in A. E. van Braam Houckgeest's An authentic account of the embassy of the Dutch East-India company, to the court of the emperor of China, in the years 1974 and 1795 (1797), which was published in London by R. Phillips. This map was first published in van Braam's «Voyage de l'ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales hollandaises vers l'empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 et 1795» (1797), which was published in Philadelphia by M.L.E. Moreau de Saint-Méry. This version of that map was reproduced in the 1798 English translation of that book.
context_page_description: Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest Dutch-American merchant who is mostly known for his participation in the last Dutch embassy to China under the tributary system.
context_section_description: Having learned about the British Macartney Embassy to the Qing court in 1793, he requested that the commissioners-general in Batavia send a VOC embassy to the court of the Qianlong Emperor for the celebration of his sixtieth year on the throne. Batavia accepted the suggestion, but appointed the chief of the Dutch trading mission in Dejima, Isaac Titsingh (1745–1812) as head of the Dutch embassy instead of van Braam.
  In  November 1794, the embassy, which included van Braam and Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes (son of Joseph de Guignes) left Guangzhou and it arrived in Beijing in January 1795, just in time for Chinese new year.
   
  In Beijing, the embassy was received together with representatives of other tributary countries and the members of the embassy performed the kowtow in front of the emperor according to Chinese custom. Unlike British diplomats, the members of the Dutch embassy did not refuse to perform the kowtow. Van Braam distinguished himself when his hat fell off while bowing, causing the emperor to laugh.
  Van Braam had retained his US citizenship and thus became the first American to meet a Chinese emperor.
  The embassy was lavishly entertained for the remainder of their stay and they were allowed to have additional audiences with the Qianlong emperor at his palace outside Beijing.
  The members of the Titsingh mission, including van Braam, were the last European diplomats to savour the mid-winter splendor of the vast Summer Palace (the Yuangmingyuan, now known as the Old Summer Palace) before its destruction by the Lord Elgin's troops during the punitive Second Opium War in 1860.
caption: Map showing route of Titsingh diplomatic mission to the Imperial Court in Peking (Beijing), traveling from Canton and returning, 1794-1795.
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