"Kuchin een sineesche Stadt in het lantschap Peking" (Kuchin, a Chinese city in the province of Beijing) is a rare, early 18th-century copperplate engraving created by the prominent Dutch-German engraver and cartographer Peter Schenk the Elder (1660–1711). Published in Amsterdam around 1700 to 1702, the print is part of his famous work "Hecatompolis", a collection featuring 100 notable cities from around the world.
The print depicts the bustling river port of Kuchin on the Gui River. Located between Beijing and Tianjin, it was heavily linked to the Grand Canal.
The text on the print refers to the city as a "common sanctuary for refugees from China and Korea" ("de gemeene vryplates der vluchtelingen van Sina en Korea").
Schenk did not travel to China himself. Instead, he based his detailed visual style on sketches drawn by the Dutch diplomat Johannes Nieuhoff, who visited the region during an embassy to China in the 1650s.
It depicts traditional Chinese architecture juxtaposed against European-style ships in the background.
Peter Schenk the Elder was born in Germany but established a highly successful print and map publishing business in Amsterdam alongside his partner, Gerard Valk. He was widely celebrated for his meticulous precision and elegant geographical art, even serving as an engraver to the court of Augustus the Strong.
