“Ivon A. Donnelly wrote this book as a tribute and catches the style, the romance, of those marvelous boats.”
Gareth Powell

The sailing junk was an amazing vessel. From Tientsin to Hong Kong - and up and down the great rivers in between - Ivon A. Donnelly immortalized these lost treasures in this book from 1924, with a pen and sketchpad and with words that betray his passion for the ancient watercraft of China. Vivid and graceful, grotesque and gay, junks were supremely honed for their particular work. But time and new technology took their toll and the junk is today all but extinct.

Who is Ivon Donnelly?

Ivon Donnelly lived in China from the early 1900s until the mid-1940s and was a shipping agent on the Yangtze River from 1920 through to the late 1930s. He was a prolific painter and builder of models of junks and published several books about junks and the China Coast. He resided in the inland river city of Chungking (Chongqing) for much of the time but also in the coastal ports of Tientsin (Tianjin) and Shanghai.