This book is made up of letters written home by Eva Price during the time frame the book covers. I didn't think it was going to be very good based on that - was afraid it would be too one sided to be a smooth read. It turned out to be a very good book that I looked forward to picking up in my spare time. If you are at all interested in the conditions the missionaries lived in and the response of the people, this is well worth a read. You are not going to learn a whole lot about China as a whole, but will get some insight on why the Chinese tended to be anti-foreigner. ( )