China had gotten into Rockhill's blood

The fame of William Woodville Rockhill faded after he died in 1914, but there is now renewed interest in the US explorer, diplomat and Sinologist on both sides of the Pacific.

Rockhill's name, once almost forgotten except in connection with the US' "Open Door Policy" for China, is once more on people's lips because of his long association with China.

And increased academic studies and the emergence of historical documents from the early 1950s have gradually pieced together a more complete picture of the American who closely tied his life to China.