Prior to the 18th century Chinese knowledge of the route conditions from China Proper to Tibet was fragmentary and largely fictitious. It was only after the Kangxi Emperor's expedition in 1720 that accurate information about Tibet became available to the Chinese.

This study uses both Chinese and Tibetan sources. The Chinese sources consist of two early Qing travel accounts: Zangcheng jilue, written by Jiao Yingqi in 1721 and Zangxing jicheng, a diary written by Du Changding, beginning on January 5, 1721, and ending on January 29, 1722. The Tibetan source is the section of the Fifth Dalai Lama's diary which concerns his trip from Lhasa to Peking and his return as recorded in the Fifth Dalai Lama's Autobiography, Volume One, folio 173b to folio 219a.

These texts are translated or summarized, and annotated as major sources for an examination of the Sino-Tibetan relations during the early Qing period.