Charles Dickens' family was never wealthy. However, for the first ten years of his life, Charles and his siblings lived a happy life between Portsmouth and then Chatham, Kent. They were able to explore the countryside and led a simple life. However, their parents lived beyond their means, and eventually moved to Camden Town, a neighborhood in London that was quite poor.

The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales is a criminal court building in London that was built in 1902 and designed by Edward William Mountford. The building gets the nickname "Old Bailey" from the street it sits on, which followed the same path as the ancient wall that was around London and part of the fortification's bailey. It is well-known from the 1859 Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. In the novel, Dickens portrays Old Bailey as a fearful place that embodies the uncompromising harshness of the law.

Shandong is a coastal province on the Yellow Sea of China. It is known for its Taoist and Confucian heritage. During the 19th century, China became rapidly increasing exposed to Western influences. As a coastal province, Shandong had a significant effect on the connections between China and Western countries. Later during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), Shandong was one of the first places in which the Boxer Rebellion started and became one of the centers of the uprising movement.