In 1780 a Choson embassy led by Pak Myongwon was invited to visit Chengde, or Yorha, and honor Qianlong`s seventy-sui birthday. A detailed record of this embassy is provided in Pak Chiwon`s Yorha ilgi, where Pak describes the encounter between the Choson emissaries and the Panchen Lama in great detail. To date, Pak`s Yorha ilgi has been read as a faithful historical record and a disinterested account of the Choson emissaries` experiences in Chengde. However, when we compare Pak`s account with various other historical records of his time, it becomes clear that Yorha ilgi is far from an objective account. The famous account of the statues of Buddha is a case in point. Pak Myongwon and his fellow emissaries received the statues from the Panchen Lama as gifts. They interpreted the statues as gifts given upon Qianlong`s orders. Consequently, they decided to carry them all the way back to Choson where they were severely criticized for violating the strict Neo-Confucian injunctions against Buddhism. Pak`s Yorha ilgi was written in defense of Pak Myongwon`s actions in the face of this political criticism. In Yorha ilgi, Pak argues that the encounter with the Panchen Lama took place under circumstances far beyond Pak Myongwon`s control. A close reading of Yorha ilgi alongside other historical documents reveals that Pak Chiwon deliberately blurs the line between eyewitness account and second-hand report by leading his readers to confuse the date of a significant event in which Qianlong met the Panchen Lama in public. As a minor figure who was not endowed with diplomatic powers, Pak Chiwon was absent from many of the events he reported on. Yorha ilgi should not be read at face value, as if it were an objective historical record, but in historical context alongside other historical documents.