Peking, Pechili province, China: a nightwatchman. Photograph, 1981, from a negative by John Thomson, 1869.

A man, wearing a shaggy coat and hat, striking an attitude of calling out while hitting a wooden sounding-board with a baton. Taken out of doors. The same as Thomson's negative number 688, probably one half of a stereo pair. "One of the city guard, Peking. An old Tartar bannerman, a humble member of the Manchu camp, who kept watch at the gate of the French hotel by night, and although in the pay of the government, and allowed a salary sufficient for his own support, yet by the time the amount reaches his hands through the official channel, it dwindles to about six shillings a month, and a regulation sheep-skin coat once a year. Old Wang ... employed also a wooden clapper to let the inmates of the house know he was astir, and to scare away thieves."--Thomson, loc. cit.