Feng arrived in Shanghai in 1860 to escape the Taiping Rebellion, and found there an unexpected resource: intimate contact with the Western world, through foreigners he could interact with first hand. He moved his family to a home in the foreign concessions and began to take notes from his engagement with foreigners.

View of the Shanghai Bund, c. 1860 Shanghai, China Gouache on paper Gift of Augustus P. Loring, Jr., 1944 E82723 View of the Shanghai Bund, c. 1860 Peabody Essex Museum 2007 Photo Jeffrey R. Dykes