White Deer Grotto, Xiamen (Amoy), Fukien province, China. Photograph by John Thomson, 1870/1871.

A brick and wood building on a stone embankment. A man sitting on a balustrade, washing hanging on a line stretched between the building and a ladder. A gateway low down to the left hand side with Chinese characters incised on the lintel. Mountains in the background, trees either side Situated on the Yueping Hill in Xiamen, White Deer Grotto was thought to have once accommodated the celebrated Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi, and from him derived the name, for Zhu Xi was intimately connected to the famous White Deer Academy in Jiangxi. Just as White Deer Academy had been established as a place for scholarly retreat, White Deer Grotto has long been a favourite place for summer retreat. According to John Thomson, from the Grotto one enjoyed a commanding view of Xiamen

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921