A rare admiralty chart, on an unusual conical projection, of the northern Chinese provinces, including Shanghai, Nanking, and Peking, during the Second Opium War.

The chart includes annotations in French showing the course of a ship which entered Shanghai from the south and thereafter departed to the north between June 8 and July 3. The user was thwarted, however, by the conical projection, making the course incorrect, as can be seen with the correction to the position of July 2.

It encompasses the area from Nimrod Sound (象山港 Xiangshan Gang) and the Chusan Archipelago (舟山群岛 Zhoushan qundao) in the south to the Gulf of Liau-Tong (辽东) in the north. The chart includes sounding depths as a navigation aid, but it also contains details of the interior, such as roads, rivers, and cities. Marked with a crenulated pattern is the Great Wall extending across the ancient northern border.

The title block includes the title, a glossary of Chinese and Tartar words, two scales, and notes on vocabulary and terminology. There is also the seal of the Hydrographic Office and the price of this separately-issued chart, 5 shillings. The author of this chart, Edward J. Powell, also completed charts of Bombay Harbour and New Zealand for the Hydrographic Office.

Additionally, the title block includes a list of sources for this chart. While this list includes Du Halde's classic 1738 map, the majority of the sources, are more recent surveys, undertaken in the 1850s. The freshness of the surveys, combined with the level of inland detail, suggests that the purpose of this chart was not, like most Admiralty charts, simply navigation, but to offer a clearer delineation of the theatre of the Second Opium War.

Rare, with only a single other example traced in the trade (Bonhams London, Dec 04 2012). WorldCat and OCLC locate examples in the British Library, Harvard College Library, SOAS University of London and the Bibliotheque National de France.