A collection of some of the oldest and rarest photographs of China, Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century, is made up of 120 photographic specimens taken in the 19th century and have never been exhibited before in Beijing.

The photographs were taken by both Chinese and international photographers and give a glimpse at what life in late Qing dynasty Beijing was like for the subjects depicted as well as what it may have been like to wonder some of the city's historic sights at the time.

The rare photographs are only a fraction of the New York-based private Stephan Loewentheil China Photography Collection, which in total includes 13,000 photographs that comprise some of the earliest known paper photographs of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.