Beatrix Timbrell Bulstrode (born Mary Beatrix Nunns in 1869, later known as Beatrix Manico Gull after second marriage, died 1951) was a British journalist and explorer. She is best known for her journey through China and Mongolia in the early twentieth century, which she wrote about in a 1920 book, A Tour in Mongolia.
Bulstrode was born Mary Beatrix Nunns in 1869 in Sussex. [1] She later became a journalist and was on the council of the Society of Woman Journalists. [1] In 1891, she married Herbert Timbrell Bulstrode, who died in 1911. [1] Bulstrode wanted to travel after the death of her first husband. [2]
Bulstrode toured Mongolia twice. [3] The first journey used local guides and she was accompanied by a missionary from Finland. [3] [4] Her second trip was with Edward Manico Gull, who she later married. [3] On her travels, she carried a concealed Mauser C96 that she was practiced in using. [5] She also had two Colt revolvers and a shotgun. [2] The entire journey cost her $1,500. [2]
Bulstrode began her journey in September 1911, starting out at Hong Kong. [2] She took a boat to Fuzhow, where she was able to tour southern China. [2] She took another boat trip to the mouth of the Yangzste River and then traveled 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometres) up the river part-way with a local crew and later on a British steamer. [2] She next traveled near Yichang and then went back to Hankou. [2] From there, she traveled to the capital, Beijing. [2] From the capital, she traveled through Zhangjiakou in a cart to Mongolia. [2] Once in Mongolia, she traveled 120 miles (190 kilometres) through open country, encountering Nomadic people. [2] Bulstrode decided not to cross the Gobi Desert and returned to Beijing. [2]
In Beijing, she met Edward Manico Gull who worked for customs in China. [2] They decided to travel to northern Mongolia together and felt they each had complementary skills needed for the journey. [2] [4] They took a train to Verkhneudinsk in Siberia and then traveled up the Selenga River in a steamboat. [2] They came to Kyakhta, where Russian customs held them up for some time because of their weapons and ammunition. [2] Finally, they hired a three-horse cart known as a taranta, and began their journey to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. [2] In the capital, she visited a "dungeon," where she described around 150 prisoners, most with life sentences being kept in small boxes, similar to Coffins. [6] She also related an incident where she watched the execution of three soldiers from this prison. [7] Leaving the capital, they traveled by orton and reached Kyakhta. [2] Then they went back to Siberia, took the Trans-Siberian Railway to St. Petersburg and finally returned to Britain. [2]
Bulstrode published a book about her travels in 1920 called A Tour in Mongolia. [8] She begins the stories of her travels in Beijing. [4] The Washington Journal called A Tour in Mongolia a "vivid account" of her journey. [9]
Bulstrode continued to stay involved with China, working to provide relief work in that country in 1937. [10] Bulstrode died in 1951 in Surrey. [1]
The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over 9,289 kilometers, it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the east.
Ulaanbaatar, previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north central Mongolia at an elevation of about 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in a valley on the Tuul River. The city was originally founded in 1639 as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, changing location 28 times, and was permanently settled at its current location in 1778.
The Tuvans or Tyvans are a Turco-Mongol ethnic group indigenous to Siberia who live in Russia (Tuva), Mongolia, and China. They speak Tuvan, a Siberian Turkic language. In Mongolia they are regarded as one of the Uriankhai peoples.
Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky was a Russian geographer of Polish descent, and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia.
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Manzhouli is a sub-prefectural city located in Hulunbuir prefecture-level city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Located on the border with Russia, it is a major land port of entry. It has an area of 696.3 square kilometres (268.8 sq mi) and a population of almost 250,000.
Prior to the 17th century, China and Russia were on opposite ends of Siberia, which was populated by independent nomads. By about 1640 Russian settlers had traversed most of Siberia and founded settlements in the Amur River basin. From 1652 to 1689, China's armies drove the Russian settlers out, but after 1689, China and Russia made peace and established trade agreements.
Captain John Dundas Cochrane was a Scottish officer in the Royal Navy, traveller and explorer. An illegitimate son of Scottish MP, army-commander and swindler Andrew Cochrane-Johnstone, John Dundas Cochrane came from extensive naval and army family - he was a cousin of Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, and nephew of Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane.
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Alice Mildred Cable was a British Protestant Christian missionary in China, serving with the China Inland Mission.
Frans August Larson was a Swedish missionary to Mongolia. He was the author of Larson, Duke of Mongolia which described time spent in Central Asia.
Buluqhan Khatun, also Bulughan, Bulukhan, Bolgana, Bulugan, Zibeline or Bolghara for Marco Polo, was a 13th-century Mongol princess, and the principal wife of the Mongol Ilkhanid ruler Abaqa (1234–1282).
The Mongolian Revolution of 1921 was a military and political event by which Mongolian revolutionaries, with the assistance of the Soviet Red Army, expelled Russian White Guards from the country, and founded the Mongolian People's Republic in 1924. Although nominally independent, the Mongolian People's Republic was a satellite state of the Soviet Union until the third Mongolian revolution in January 1990. The revolution also ended the Chinese Beiyang government's occupation of Mongolia, which begun in 1919. The official Mongolian name of the revolution is "People's Revolution of 1921" or simply "People's Revolution".
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The Russo-Chinese Bank was a foreign bank, founded in 1895, that represented joint French and Russian interests in China during the late Qing dynasty. It merged in 1910 with the French-sponsored Banque du Nord, a large domestic bank in Russia, to form the Russo-Asiatic Bank.
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Sarah Marquis is a Swiss adventurer and explorer. From 2010 to 2013, she walked 20,000 kilometres (12,000 mi) alone from Siberia to the Gobi Desert, into China, Laos, Thailand, and then across Australia. In 2011, she gave a TED talk and in 2014 she was named one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year.
The Kyakhta Trade refers to the trade between Russia and China through the town of Kyakhta on the Mongolian border south of Lake Baikal from 1727. The trade was mostly Siberian furs for Chinese cotton, silk, tobacco and tea.