"Pekin" refers to modern-day Beijing, as it was formerly called "Peking" by Europeans. Portugal was the first European country to contact modern China, and the city was referred to as "Pequim" in Portuguese. This translates to English as "Pekin". This name changed to Beijing in the late 1900s. This means that Lota spent time with her father in China. A "consul" is a government-appointed individual assigned to live in a foreign city to protect and promote a foreign government's interests there, an instrument of imperialism.
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Chapter I. “Herself.” Annotated Text in Haunting Imperial (Non)Sense: What Cannot be Captured in the Victorian Ghost Story. 1894. https://editions.covecollective.org/edition/haunting-imperial-nonsense-w....
“Names of Beijing.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, last edited 3 November 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Beijing.
“Consul, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, September 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5839656475.