Donald M. Mennie was a Scottish businessman and amateur photographer who was active in China. He arrived there in 1899 working first at Mactavish & Lehman & Co. in Peking (now Beijing) and later joined A.S. Watson & Co. in Shanghai.

A highly successful entrepreneur of pharmaceuticals, wine, spirits, cigars and photographic chemicals and apparatus, he employed his affluency to support his photographic interests.
Mennie was influenced by contemporary pictorialism, and his photogravures were well suited to a slightly romanticized and soft focus view of China.

His photographs were first published in Elizabeth Cooper's book "My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard" (1914) and, through the 1920's, he published under the auspices of the company he worked for, A.S. Watson & Co., a number of photographically illustrated books on China of which the most notable are "The Pageant of Peking" (1920) and "The Grandeur of the Gorges." (1926)

Punt beside the Bridge of the Curved Back, Summer Palace, Peking 1920 circa
Photogravure

Gateway at Nankou Pass, Great Wall of China 1920 circa
Photogravure

Memorial Archways, Peking 1920 circa
Photogravure