King of the road and man of letters

Emperor's penchant for travel was tightly bound to his reputation for being highly educated

On all the evidence, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) loved to be on the road: he traveled 11 times to Shandong, the hometown of Confucius, whose musings became almost holy writ to generations of rulers.

However, it was his trips to Jiangnan, areas south of the Yangtze River, that are better known to modern-day Chinese, partly thanks to period TV dramas loosely based on these journeys.