Peking Convention

Convention of Peking
Signing of the treaty by Lord Elgin and Prince Gong
Traditional Chinese	北京條約
Simplified Chinese	北京条约
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Běijīng Tiáoyūe Hakka Romanization Bet5gin1 Tiau2yok5 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping bak1 ging1 tiu4 joek3

The Convention or First Convention of Peking, sometimes now known as the Convention of Beijing, is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing Empire (China) and the United Kingdom, France, and Russia in 1860. In China, they are regarded as among the unequal treaties. The original copy of the Convention is kept in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

On 18 October 1860, at the culmination of the Second Opium War, the British and French troops entered the Forbidden City in Beijing. Following the decisive defeat of the Chinese, Prince Gong was compelled to sign two treaties on behalf of the Qing government with Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, who represented Britain and France respectively. Although Russia had not been a belligerent, Prince Gong also signed a treaty with Nikolay Ignatyev.

The original plan was to burn down the Forbidden City as punishment for the mistreatment of Anglo-French prisoners by Qing officials. Because doing so would jeopardize the treaty signing, the plan shifted to burning the Old Summer Palace and Summer Palace instead. The treaties with France and Britain were signed in the Ministry of Rites building immediately south of the Forbidden City on 24 October 1860.

In the Convention, the Xianfeng Emperor ratified the Treaty of Tientsin (1858).

The area known as Kowloon was originally leased in March 1860. The Convention of Peking ended the lease, and ceded the land formally to the British on 24 October 1860.