The unlikely tale of Chinese slave, soldier and tycoon Jiang Zonghan
Here's a reading of an article recently published in the South China Morning Post, written by travel writer David Leffman. On his most recent trip to Yunnan to work on his upcoming book on the 1875 Margary Affair, David had a chance encounter with a taxi driver who was a sixth-generation descendent of Jiang Zonghan, someone closely related to the little-known but rather consequential event that took place in February 1875 along the Yunnan-Myanmar border.
Here's a link to the article. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3272812/who-built-first-bridge-over-yangtze-river-unlikely-tale-chinese-slave-soldier-and-tycoon-jiang
Website: https://www.davidleffman.com/
After the exploits of Robert Fortune, many other plant hunters such as Henry Fletcher Hance, Père David, Augustine Henry, Ernest Wilson, and George Forrest, among others followed in his footsteps to China.