Convention of Peking

Anglo-French forces occupied An Ding Men and entered Beijing on October 13, 1860. Three days after, the Anglo-French representatives claimed that a compensation of 500,000 taels of silver from the Qing government should be delivered in six days. Moreover, the Qing government was compelled to sign supplementary treaties and recognize the validity of the Treaty of Tianjin.

At the same time, Emperor Xianfeng fled the capital to Jehol, leaving his brother, Prince Gong, to be in charge of negotiations and instructed him to "do nothing but compromise in order to preserve the overall situation."

On October 24, 1860, Prince Gong signed the Convention of Peking on behalf of the Qing government with Lord Elgin who represented Britain.

The original name of the Convention of Peking was the "Sino-British Supplementary Treaty." In addition to confirm that the "Treaty of Tianjin" was still in force, the British also extended other rights as follows: increasing indemnities to Britain to 8 million taels of silver; opening Tianjin as a trade port; allowing British ships to carry indentured Chinese to the Americas; and ceding No.1 District of Kowloon (south of Boundary Street) to Britain. It is no wonder that the Anglo-French invaders, who launched the Second Opium War, pocketed windfalls from the Convention of Peking.

Prince Gong signed the Convention of Peking on behalf of the Qing government with Baron Gros who represented France on October 25, 1860, the following day after he signed the treaty with Britain.

The original name of the Convention of Peking between China and France was the "Sino-French Supplementary Treaty."

In addition to confirm that the "Treaty of Tianjin" was still in force, the French also extended other rights as follows: increasing indemnities to France to 8 million taels of silver; opening Tianjin as a trade port; allowing French ships to carry Chinese laborers to worker overseas; and returning the previously confiscated properties to French Catholic missionaries.

Louis-Charles Delamarre, the interpreter for Gros, taking advantage of his position as translator, personally added to the Chinese translation of the treaty the following clause: "and allowing French missionaries the freedom to purchase or rent land for building purposes." A number of anti-missionary cases which happened later were related to this unwarranted demand.