Alexander Michie

Alexander Michie (1 March 1833 – 8 March 1902) was a Scottish writer, editor and businessperson active in British Hong Kong and Qing China. Known for his 1864 book recounting his experiences traveling overland from Peking to Saint Petersburg, Michie also wrote books about the British experience in China and the work of Christian missionaries in the country.

Early life and education Michie was born on 1 March 1833 in Earlsferry, Fife to Alexander Michie, a weaver, and Ann Laing. In 1863, Michie took a furlough and made the unusual choice to travel overland back to Britain through Russia on the Siberian Route. The journey took four months. His subsequent book, published in 1864, is his best known work and, he said, the first description of the whole journey from Peking to Saint Petersburg since John Bell's account published in 1763.

In 1902, while on a train near London, Michie became ill. He was taken to the room in the Hotel Cecil where he was living and died there on 7 August 1902. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery. He left an estate of more than 22,000 Pounds sterling, a substantial sum.

Works The Siberian overland route from Peking to Petersburg, through the deserts and steppes of Mongolia, Tartary, &c, J. Murray, (1864) Missionaries in China, E. Stanford, (1891) The Englishman in China during the Victorian Era, two volumes, W. Blackwood & sons, (1900) China and Christianity, Knight and Millet, (1900) The political obstacles to missionary success in China, Hongkong Daily Press Office (1901)