The “gripping and meticulously researched” (The Times, London) true story of the determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China’s Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond. Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking’s Forbidden City, for centuries the home of Chinese emperors, are tense with fear and expectation. Japan’s aircrafts drone overhead, its troops and tanks are only hours away. All-out war between China and Japan is coming, and the curators of the Forbidden City are faced with an impossible question: how will they protect the vast imperial art collections in their charge? A difficult and monumental decision is made: to safeguard the treasures, they will need to be evacuated. The magnificent collections contain a million pieces of art—objects that carry China’s deepest and most ancient memories. Among them are irreplaceable artefacts: exquisite paintings on silk, rare Ming porcelain, and the extraordinary Stone Drums of Qin, which are adorned with 2,500-year-old inscriptions of cultural significance. For sixteen years, under the quiet leadership of museum director Ma Heng, the curators would go on to transport the imperial art collections thousands of miles across China—up rivers of white water, across mountain ranges, and through burning cities. In their search for safety the curators and their fragile, invaluable cargo journeyed through the maelstrom of violence, chaos, and starvation that was China’s Second World War. Told for the first time in English and playing out across a vast historical canvas, this “compelling story of art, war, and adventure” (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs: 1613-1918) follows the small group of men and women who, when faced with war’s onslaught on civilization, chose to resist.

The “gripping and meticulously researched” (The Times, London) true story of the determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China’s Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond. Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking’s Forbidden City, for centuries the home of Chinese emperors, are tense with fear and expectation. Japan’s aircrafts drone overhead, its troops and tanks are only hours away. All-out war between China and Japan is coming, and the curators of the Forbidden City are faced with an impossible question: how will they protect the vast imperial art collections in their charge? A difficult and monumental decision is made: to safeguard the treasures, they will need to be evacuated. The magnificent collections contain a million pieces of art—objects that carry China’s deepest and most ancient memories. Among them are irreplaceable artefacts: exquisite paintings on silk, rare Ming porcelain, and the extraordinary Stone Drums of Qin, which are adorned with 2,500-year-old inscriptions of cultural significance. For sixteen years, under the quiet leadership of museum director Ma Heng, the curators would go on to transport the imperial art collections thousands of miles across China—up rivers of white water, across mountain ranges, and through burning cities. In their search for safety the curators and their fragile, invaluable cargo journeyed through the maelstrom of violence, chaos, and starvation that was China’s Second World War. Told for the first time in English and playing out across a vast historical canvas, this “compelling story of art, war, and adventure” (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs: 1613-1918) follows the small group of men and women who, when faced with war’s onslaught on civilization, chose to resist.

ENGLISH IN BUSINESS to angielsko-polski słownik i leksykon definicji z zakresu szeroko rozumianego słownictwa z dziedziny finansów, bankowości oraz terminów ekonomicznych i używanych w ubezpieczeniach. Całość liczy ponad 12 tysięcy haseł słownikowych oraz 6725 definicji opisowych. Publikacja jest także podręcznikiem dla osób uczących się Business English i jest przeznaczona na komputery i tablety.

T HIS VOL U M E has been written to describe the business side of a commercial enterprise whose field is the entire civilized world. Historically, the theory and knowledge of shipping management, as distinguished from the practical skills of seaman ship, have been transmitted from one generation to the next by word of mouth. Little has been put on paper, primarily because the finest exponents of the art of steamship management have been too busy with their day-to-day concerns to do so. The "working level" personnel often are superbly competent, but rarely qualify as liter ary craftsmen. It has been my aim, in preparing this analysis of the principles of the "business" of commercial shipping, to describe that which trans pires in the various divisions of a shipowning and operating organi zation. Insofar as possible, the procedures followed in the offices have been described and explained, as well as the underlying prin ciples of management by which their decisions are reached. In the process of learning the principles and practices that are set forth in these pages, I have spent ajoy-filled lifetime in associa tion with ships. It has been my good fortune to work in large and small American steamship offices, to operate a major cargo termi nal, to participate in establishing and putting into effect the policies of a world-girdling American steamship organization, and to teach young men these principles learned from experience as well as from precept.