Lǐ Guī 李圭 (1842–1903; CBDB 77016; dates confirmed by Qīngdài rénwù shēngzú niánbiǎo 清代人物生卒年表, #7760), courtesy name Xiǎochí 小池, was a native of Jiāngnán 江南 (Jiāngnán 江寧, modern Nánjīng). From his mid-twenties he worked as a customs secretary (wénshū 文書) at the Níngbō 寧波 customs office under the British Inspector-General Robert Hart (赫德), and became one of the pioneers of modern Chinese postal and customs administration.
In 1876 he was dispatched by Hart to represent China at the American Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, becoming one of the first Chinese officials to travel to America. He subsequently journeyed home via Europe, recording his observations in the influential travel diary Huányóu Dìqiú Xīnlù 環遊地球新錄 (4 juàn, preface 1877). Wilkinson (Chinese History, §66.4.3.5) lists this work alongside the diplomatic diaries of Guō Sōngtāo 郭嵩燾 and Zēng Jìzé 曾紀澤 as a notable example of the genre. In 1876 Lǐ Guī met Yóng Wīng 容閎 (Yung Wing) and the first generation of Chinese students in America, visiting them in Hartford, Connecticut. He is credited as the first to propose “Jiù Jīnshān 舊金山” (Old Mountain of Gold) for San Francisco and “Xīn Jīnshān 新金山” for Melbourne.
In 1885 he translated the Hong Kong Postal Guide into Chinese and drafted regulations for a proposed Chinese postal bureau, influencing Lǐ Hóngzhāng’s 李鴻章 postal reform programme. His earlier Yāpiàn Shì Lüè 鴉片事略 (KR4k0270) is a historical survey of the opium trade in China, compiled from published sources and press reports, with appended diplomatic documents.