Chapter C: W. Kinder, a Briton, of the Kaiping mines, built the first (3)

Samuel Pollard, a missionary working in Yunnan, is compiling an alphabet and reducing to writing the speech of the hitherto unrecorded aboriginal tribes, the Miao and Lolos. He plans then to give them some western literature in return for the ethnological riches which they give us. They are the most unique people in the world, older even than the Chinese. Their fortresses are in Szechuen, Yunnan and Kweichow provinces, and there are, perhaps, two millions of this fearless fighting race. From dimmest history they have been pressed back to the mountain tops by the Chinese, who have spread out from their original home in the Yellow River valley with four hundred million people. That the Chinese have impressed some of their language, as far as necessary trade goes, on the aborigines can be seen from the following table, there remaining only two (two and five) sounds in these eight, which have not been somewhat influenced:

MIAO ABORIGINE CHINESE
1 Ah Ee
2 Ow Erh
3 Tsz San
4 Peu Su
5 Peh Wu
6 Glow Liu
7 Ya Pah
8 Chow Chiu

The writer in the Antiquity chapter of a former book adopted the Biblical account of the creation, that the original Chinese (Chou clan’s ancestors) spread through Turkestan, along the Tarim valley, to their first known home in Shensi province. Doctor Stein has found on the site of the ruined temple of Hangayi Tuti at Khoten, in Chinese Turkestan, birchbark and other manuscript in an unknown language. These point the way to a further search. The Asiatic Society, of Bengal, Calcutta, has acquired from a Montenegrin gentleman, who traveled in Turkestan, five leaves of brownish yellow manuscripts eight by six inches, in an unknown language, which wait to reveal possible wonders of China’s prehistoric story. The pages show that they were one part of an extensive work now lost in the sands and camp ashes of central Asia. There is room for emulation by America, Britain and China of Russia’s archeological research in Chinese Turkestan, for the world wants to know more of ancient China, now that the New China has become important. The professors of the American colleges in China are sufficiently learned to make a beginning in preserving China’s antiquities, which are now in great danger of being lost forever. The rage, as far as the Chinese themselves are concerned, is altogether for the new and utilitarian. The modernized Chinese have already forgotten their conservative Hanlin Academy.

XX

LIFE OF FOREIGNERS IN CHINA

I know of no place where music, lanterns, romantic mountain scenery, seascapes far below and delightful society in an alien setting combine more pleasantly than at the Peak Club, Hongkong. Above the passing clouds which now and then whirl around as in Rubens’ pictures, over the purple Pacific Ocean which foams around hilly islands, over the high hills as you ascend from the royal colony of Victoria, on a terrace, they have graded a velvet lawn. Here the military and naval bands are brought for a promenade concert in the soft night of the fragrant Orient, beneath Bowring’s “wide Cathayan tree”. The band of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, from Mt. Austin barracks, plays the stirring Welsh national march, _The Men of Harlech_. The men sing the chorus:

“See! the bonfire light before ye,
How its fiery tongues do call ye,
Come as one to death or glory,
Heroes of the fight.

“Lest by fire they kill and plunder,
Harlech! Harlech! make them wonder
At thy power that none can sunder;
Freedom thou wilt give.”

Flowering plants in large colored Chinese kongs are set out everywhere. The stars and moon shine. The pictured lanterns gently swing, and the horn lanterns of Ningpo are opal soft. The light flashes from swords, uniforms and jewels. The blue-gowned Oriental servants noiselessly pass refreshments. Not a Chinese house is in view, though half a million Chinese live hidden in the foothills. On the hundred peaks of Hongkong Island, the lights of a hundred palaces and villas of the merchant princes shine out. Down the winding cement paths, chairs bearing lanterns and carrying guests are borne with their rhythmic swing.

Every lady and every man present has come from far, and knows much of life and geography. The conversation tires not, for there is something of great interest to tell. Kitchener’s brother (Kitchener himself would not come--he never moves in “society”); General Wood, of the United States Army; Commander Greeley, United States Navy, of North Polar fame; Admiral Scott, of the British Navy, who invented the large gun “dotter” that made the heavy marksmanship possible, and whose 4.7 gun saved Ladysmith; Nathan, the hero governor of the typhoon and _Hankow_ holocaust; the governor of the Philippines at the far stretched-out line of America’s new fame and empire; Kipling himself full of his colored phrases; authors of books on China, many of whom live in Hongkong; German, French and Russian commanders, whose impetuous ambition has made many moves that have nearly started world wars; ordnance and commissariat colonels, who, without a hitch, have provisioned famous international military relief expeditions; prince and pauper explorers who are one in the camaraderie of adventure for science; curio collectors who are raking the world to enrich western museums with enravishing art; Ponting, the photographer who went with the intrepid Commander Scott to the South Pole; seven-year indentured “griffins” who are second sons of noble houses and whose inheritance of style is a millstone around the necks of their impoverished incomes; subalterns who are chafing at the bit to be let make a mark like Kitchener; visiting lieutenants from Manila who would emulate Funston in the Philippines; Japanese doctors who have beat the world in discovering Bacillariaceæ; Parsees who have founded universities and have, therefore, dined with “my friend, the king”; the merchant princes and the missionary apostles of China, whose knowledge would fill books; women of grace, beauty and learning, nibbling at sweet cinnamon, musk and lotus; international spies of both sexes from the notorious Brussels headquarters; all move over the quiet grass, listening to the haunting strains of the bewitching music, which makes the heathen hills unalien under the swinging lanterns and the white-riding moon.

When you lift your glass to say “_prosit_”, “here’s how”, “_à bon santé_”, or “here’s to you, old man”, with no national reservations, and a feeling that all traveled men are brothers; and some fraternally wider day possibly you will not shiver when John Celestial, Friend Nippon, and Aryan Bengal are admitted to the delightful company gathered under the whispering bamboos and floating sandal scent of the Peak Club of Hongkong.

It is the same interesting story on ladies’ night at the Bund Club of Canton; the Jockey Club of Shanghai; the Hankau Club; the Tientsin Club; the delightful conversazioni at Sir Francis Aglen’s on Customs Street, Peking, when the National Customs Band plays; the Gouverneur’s “Palais” at Saigon and Hué; the International Club at Harbin; Government House at Wei-Hai-Wei; or the consulate at Chifu. It whets the imagination to be dancing within sight of the stacked rifles at the front, and you reverse Tennyson and say in Locksley Hall: “Better one night in Cathay than a cycle of Park Lane” (or Fifth Avenue)! You recite the thrilling incidents, such as the ball which Wellington attended on the eve before Waterloo, etc.! Certainly the foreigner in recent years has never known when he would be called upon at Hongkong, Canton, Hankau, Shanghai, Tientsin, Amoy, Macao, Fuchau, etc., to rush out, in either his dress or his business suit, or possibly his night pajamas, with his gun, to defend property, some kind of government, and the white man’s rights and habits of trade and international civilization. Not only white men have suffered and borne, but the foreign heroines of diplomacy, missions and trade of Wuchang, Hankau, Canton, Peking, Tientsin, Chingtu, Chungking, Amoy, Fuchau, etc., are numbered in hundreds.

The foreigner in China enters upon his sporting and social enjoyment keenly, because his sufferings from climate, alienation and danger are also keen. Taking his life altogether, he deserves more than he receives as a reward for his work, and he and his wife are unusually interesting people to meet, as I know from three years’ life in their honored midst.

The human beasts of burden--the rickshaw coolies of Hongkong, Shanghai, and the treaty ports--are directed by little of their own language. Only a few of the mercantile men on station learn the language. The foreign tourist generally learns two words, “kwai se” (go) and “man-man” (stop-stop), and the coolies, like beasts, therefore depend for directions as they race along in the heat, on a tap on the left or right shaft to indicate which street the “fare” desires to turn up. Hongkong proposes to have printed on a large bill-board at every chair and rickshaw stand a list of fares. Hongkong and Shanghai have become great tourist centers, whole shiploads landing there from New York and San Francisco, and the tourist’s generosity or lack of local information permits him to pay so large a fare that the expenses of the resident are raised beyond endurance. The example of Hongkong might well be copied at every tourist center over the world. “A fair price, but not a foolish price” is the watchword in these new days of economy and efficiency, because world-waste can be tolerated no longer.

The regiments which from time to time come to garrison Hongkong reveal many interesting traits in their customs and uniform. The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, fresh from the Boer War, wore three silk ribbons down their backs. They are the only British regiment which is permitted thus to mourn the deprivation of the old “pig tail” of the bewigged regiments of the Georges, which custom they were the last regiment to discontinue. The Lincolnshires wear a band of green to show that they are foresters recruited in Robin Hood’s country. The Inneskilling Fusiliers and the Somersets at Tientsin retain their traditional territorial peculiarities. The Cameronians are the only British regiment which is allowed to bear arms into church service, as a reminder of the old strenuous days of surprise when the clans might leap like a wolf from behind even the pulpit. There are so many branches of the historic British service in Hongkong’s, Tientsin’s, etc., garrison life that American tourists are delightfully entertained and instructed in tradition that is far from uninteresting. The British have found that to recruit and fight a man as a number is not a success, as compared with the picturesque traditions in a territorial army of uniform, customs, names, fetish, romance, glory, flags, distinctive rights, etc. In other words, they humor Tommy Atkins as a boy, and he fights for them like a man, every time it is necessary. This was shown when the swagger regiments of the Guards of London, under Generals French, Paget and Roberts hit the Boer lines as hard as the Royal Welsh, who are recruited from sturdy fearless miners. Bret Harte’s “Caucasian showed that he was no more played out” on those occasions than he was when he rushed El Caney and San Juan Hill led by Roosevelt, Lawton, Chaffee and Wheeler. The Chinese of Peking and Tientsin in 1900 had a chance to see the brilliant performance of the American Fourteenth Infantry, Sixth Cavalry, and the marines under Captain McCalla of the cruiser _Newark_, and recently the fine Fifteenth Infantry, U. S. A., has renewed the very favorable gentlemanly impression at Tientsin and along the railway line to Peking.

When the military weddings take place at St. John’s Cathedral, Hongkong, and the cathedrals at Shanghai and Tientsin, it is customary for the brother officers of the groom to unsheath their swords and make an arch of steel over Mars and Venus as they make their exit from the church. This old custom is not often seen elsewhere than in India and China, and would be a pretty one to adopt for military weddings the world over. The Germans particularly would take to it with zest; in fact, they have just adopted it in their “kirche” at Tsingtau, North China, and the Americans may adopt it in the smart military life of Manila.

Important newspapers published in English are the _Times_, at Tientsin; the _Mail_, _Telegraph_, _Press_ and _Post_, of Hongkong; the _Herald_, _News_, _Mercury_, _Press_, _Far Eastern Review_ and _Times_, of Shanghai; the _Post_, of Hankau; the _Gazette_ and _Times_, of Amoy, and the _Echo_, of Fuchau. The _Times_ and the _Cable News_, of Manila; the _Free Press_ and _Echo_, of Singapore; and the _Englishman_, of Calcutta, may be included, together with the _Chronicle_, of Japan, because they circulate in China ports, “nothing that is Oriental being alien” to their fascinating news columns. Their editorials are illuminating, and often exhibit in their cultured English positive genius. They are an authoritative source of information on the absorbing theme of golden Cathay, and the interest of the brave Occidental pioneer in her awakening.

Water polo, swimming, launch, golf, cricket, tennis, yacht, dramatic, polo, etc., clubs are established at nearly all the treaty ports, and inter-Hong, inter-service, international and inter-regimental contests are constantly going on to take the edge off ennui in the long day of Oriental exile in a seven-year indenture. For those inclined to literature, science and ethnology, there are notable library and Asiatic associations, and some of them superintend an indispensable press. Royalty visits Hongkong frequently and encourages every phase of life in the premier colony. On the occasion of the Duke of Connaught’s last visit with his family they received the military at the landing pier and the populace at the City Hall; unveiled statues to the late King Edward and King George; lunched with the governor and council; attended a meeting of the Scottish Rite Masons, lunched with the mess of the Indian frontier regiment camped out on the foothills of China; attended a Chinese theater; ate at a Chinese restaurant; attended a daylight try-out of the racing ponies, Indian-breds and Walers at the Wong-Nei-Chong Jockey Club; and went with “Hoi-Polloi” on a week-end trip on the steamer _Fat Shan_ to see Canton’s sights, and “tiffin”, as does the whole world of globe-trotters, on the third veranda of the five-storied pagoda. German royalty is just as active at Tsingtau, French nobility at Saigon and Haiphong, Portugese nobility at lovely Macao, and the cosmopolitan world at the “Paris of the East”, Shanghai. Of Macao, the famous poet, Sir John Bowring, wrote:

“Gem of the Orient earth and open sea,
Macao! that in thy lap and on thy breast
Hast gathered beauties all the loveliest,
Which the sun smiles on in his majesty.
The very clouds that top each mountain crest,
Seem to repose there, lingering lovingly.
How full of grace the green Cathayan tree
Bends to the breeze--and now thy sands are pressed
With gentle waves which ever and anon
Break their awakened furies on thy shore.
Were these the scenes that Camoens looked upon,
Whose lyre, though known to fame, knew misery more?”

In a former book, _The Chinese_, I have referred to the high cost of living at Hongkong, Shanghai, etc., as far as rent is concerned. This is because a navy and army have to be maintained. It is well known that Hongkong contributes to the British Budget more pro rata than any part of the long red line of British empire. The man who goes to the hot damp East to advance the cause of imperialism, and who reads Kipling and Gilbert Parker, pays high for it in money as well as health, and he deserves more than he receives. Land values are twice what they are in the suburban cities of New York, such as Brooklyn and Jersey City, and twice what they are in the outlying wards of London. Yaumati is a section of Hongkong’s colony on the China mainland, and values there are not so high as on hilly Hongkong Island. Yet a plot of land 150 by 140 feet, recently sold in Yaumati for $8,700 gold. No American or European should be sent to the treaty ports of the Far East to support any cause, diplomatic, military, commercial, scientific, academic, religious, or international customs, who is not given twice the emolument that he would receive at home. Yet the mission leaders in particular generously accept far less than they would receive as workers in America.

The foreigner has a larger list of supplies to pick from than was the case before modern roads were opened and the Chinese were taught to farm for the foreigner’s table. Ice houses, ice machinery, inspected markets, and water tanks for fish all have aided. Not so long ago we in the Far East were benzoate of soda and salicylic acid fiends, the men Doctor Wiley bemoaned; that is to say, our gun was a can-opener, and our game was tinned foods. We could go out into the jungle of Queens Road or the praya, Hongkong; Nanking Road, Shanghai; Kaiser Road, or the Chien Men Fair, Peking; or the bunds at Tientsin, Canton or Hankau, on our way home from office, and with our weapon bring down the foods of Europe, America and Australia, running, of course, not a little risk of ptomaine poisoning, positively ruining our stomachs forever, and becoming a permanent dyspeptic charge upon the nerves of the long-suffering community! Now things are better. Here is a list of fresh foods procurable in the larger ports. In the plague, typhoid or cholera season, some eschew fresh vegetables, and again, when they recall that the farmer is the town scavenger, some eschew fresh vegetables at all seasons! I quote the prices in gold, and give the Chinese word your lordly cook calls out to the obsequious stallsman, so that the stranger may gain an idea that Chinese does not sound unmusical:

MEAT

Beef sirloin, Mei Lung Pa, 10 cents a pound.
Beef steak, Ngan Yuk Pa, 10 cents a pound.
Mutton chop, Yeung Pai Kwat, 12 cents a pound.
Pork chops, Chi Pai Kwat, 10 cents a pound.
Chicken, Chu Yau, 8 cents a pound.
Duck, Ap, 15 cents a pound.
Doves, Pan Kau, 7 cents each.
Geese, Ngoi, 13 cents a pound.
Turkeys, cock, Phor Kai Kung, 20 cents a pound.

FISH

Barbel, Ka Yu, 5 cents a pound.
Carp, Li Yu, 9 cents a pound.
Cod, Mun, 7 cents a pound.
Crabs, Hai, 9 cents a pound.
Cuttlefish, Muk, 6 cents a pound.
Eels, Conger, Hai Mann, 7 cents a pound.
Frogs, Tien Kai, 20 cents a pound.
Garoupa, Sek Pan, 28 cents a pound.
Halibut, Cheung Kwan Kup, 12 cents a pound.
Lobster, Lung Ha, 18 cents a pound.
Mackerel, Chi, 16 cents a pound.
Mullet, Chai, 10 cents a pound.
Parrotfish, Kai Kung, 8 cents a pound.
Pomfret, white, Pak Chong, 13 cents a pound.
Salmon, Ma Yau Yu, 16 cents a pound.
Shrimps, Ha, 12 cents a pound.
Soles, Tat Sa, 12 cents a pound.
South China is rich in fish, and I could quote scores more.

FRUIT

Almonds, Hung Yan, 9 cents a pound.
Apples, Chifu, Tin Chun Ping Khor, 7 cents a pound.
Bananas, fragrant Canton, San Shing Heung Chiu, 1½ cents a pound.
Carambola, Yeung Tuo, 4 cents a pound.
Cocoanuts, Yeh Tsz, 5 cents each.
Lemons, Ning Moong, 4 cents a pound.
Lichees, Lai Chi, 5 cents a pound (called “Chinese nuts”).
Lily roots, Lin Ngan, 3 cents a pound.
Limes from Saigon, Sai Kung Ning Moong, 3 cents a pound.
Pears, Canton, Sa Li, 4 cents a pound.
Peanuts, Fa Sang, 5 cents a pound.
Persimmons, Hung Chie, 10 cents a pound.
Pineapples, Sheung Poon Ti Pau Lau, 5 cents each.
Plantains, Tai Chen, 1 cent each.
Plums, Swatow, Hung Lai, 5 cents a pound.
Pumelo, Siam, Chim Lo Yau (grapefruit), 5 cents each.
Walnuts, Hop Tuo, 6 cents a pound.
Watermelon, Sai Kwa, 1½ cents a pound.

VEGETABLES

Beans, sprouted, Ah Choi, 2 cents a pound.
Beets, Hung Choi, 1 cent each.
Brinjal, Ching Yuen, 2 cents a pound.
Cabbage, Kai Choy, 2 cents a pound.
Carrots, Kam Shun, 3 cents a pound.
Chilies, Red Hung Fa, 3 cents a pound.
Cucumbers, Ching Kwa, 1 cent each.
Garlic, Suen Tau, 3 cents a pound.
Ginger, young, Sun Tsz Keung, 3 cents a pound.
Corn, Suk Mai, 2 cents each.
Lettuce, Yeung San Choi, ½ cent each.
Onions, Sang Chung, 2 cents a pound.
Papaw, Tai Man, 5 cents each.
Potato, sweet, Fan Shu, 1½ cents a pound.
Spinach, Yin Choi, 2 cents a pound.
Tomatoes, Kan Ker, 3 cents a pound.
Vegetable marrow, Chit Kwa, 1 cent a pound.
Water cress, Sai Yeung Choi, 5 cents a pound.

The table is justly famous at the following, among other hotels and clubs, and the wines are as cheap as in Europe, because no duty is charged at Hongkong, and only five per cent. in China. In Japan, however, and in French China there is a heavy duty on foreign liquor. The Grand Hotel and the club, at Yokohama; the club, Kobe; Wagon Lits and club, Peking; Imperial Hotel and club, Tientsin; Astor House and club, Shanghai; Peak, Grand, Craigieburn, Hongkong and Astor Hotels and club, at Hongkong; Victoria Hotel and club, Canton; Boa Vista, Hing Kee and club, at Macao. When you go there, next time, tourist, ask for broiled samli or Sek Pan at Macao; toasted rice birds or Ap ducks at Shanghai; Mongolian mutton at Peking; roasted imperial pheasant at Tientsin; preserved comquats in ginger syrup, Hungyan almonds, and Sai Kwa watermelons at Canton; Hung Lai plums at Swatow; Tin Chun Khor apples at Chifu; fresh lichees or Phor Kai turkey at Hongkong, and ruby red persimmons at Yokohama. It is not well to be a gourmand always, but it is well to be an epicure on eminent occasions, so as to remember them forever, from fear that, as in Senator Ingalls’ poem, “Opportunity knocks but once.”

XXI

FOREIGN CITIES OF CHINA

At all the great treaty port cities and colonies, such as Hongkong, Shanghai, Canton, Macao, Tientsin, etc., the stranger is accosted by crowds of rickshaw coolies, venders, fortune-tellers, flower sellers, etc., urging his patronage. Efforts are being made to limit this noise, which is at present like the reception that a football hero gets when he wins a game. The Chinese think we like the attention, because so many of us smile, and if one looks cross, a native wit will call out: “Don’t ask Honorable Sad-Face to ride; he has just lost his white mother-in-law, and must demurely walk behind her ghost.”

The first motor-car used in China was brought to Hongkong by an American dentist in 1900. It was a storage electric vehicle, as the authorities prohibited for a while the use of gasoline on account of the fire risk. Gasoline cars and launches are now used throughout the treaty ports, but kerosene engines are preferred in motor-boats. Kerosene can be procured anywhere in China, but gasoline is procurable only within a limited area.

As a foreign steamer enters a port, a fleet of sanpans throw out hooks and grapple with the ship. This picturesque nuisance the authorities are trying to stop, on account of the danger to life which is involved. The hotel runners, gamblers, and venders desire to be over the rail before any passengers leave. The health authorities desire to stop the irrepressible boarders as much as the harbor masters do. The boarders shout out to their countrymen: “You there! Throw over a fastened rope; we want to kotow to you on board, and leave you some of our money in a little game.” Over the rope goes, despite the frantic mate, who is a white man, and like ants, the agile Chinese clamber up the sides of the big trans-Pacific or Suez liner.

Peking, Haukau, Tientsin, Shanghai, Ningpo, Hongkong and other cities of China all have fine race courses, club-houses and stables. In hot Hongkong the racing, gymkana and polo meets occur from September to April. Szechuen and Mongolian ponies, Australian and Indian horses are used, but few American or British, the cost and insurance risk for the latter being too great. Every white man, singly or in clubs, goes in for the “king of sports”, and from a military point of view this interest in racing is very advantageous. The betting is generally on the French method of Paris Mutuels, where those who bet on the winning animal divide the pool, less eight per cent. for club expenses. The Chinese are beginning to understand the horse, and mafoo-jockeys and trainers are being developed. Up and down the China coast the owners ship their champion racers, and the interport rivalries are keen in this, and every other sport. The main ambition is for the owner to ride his horse as a “gentleman-jockey” in the crowning Derby event, and quite a few Hebrew and Parsee owners enter their horses in a widening sporting fraternity, which not long ago was limited to Saxons, and which may yet include Chinese gentry. The stocky Mongolian pony, weighing fifteen hundred pounds, only covers the mile in two minutes and eight seconds, and being hard of mouth and stubborn, he is as likely as not to cover the mile the opposite way to that which has been prescribed by the stewards! Not only has Hongkong two very fine golf courses, but Canton, Macao, Hankau, Shanghai, Peking, Tientsin, and other treaty ports have excellent courses famous for their novel bunkers of tombstones, etc., and club-houses. During most of the year at Hongkong the game is played on the Wong Nei Chong course shortly after daylight, as after eight o’clock the overhead sun is too hot for that exercise which is essential if one expects to keep “fit” in the Orient.

Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

The mountain palaces of Hongkong; clouds almost cover the great
peaks. Note gate house, covered chairs; extensive verandas.
Hongkong’s architecture dominates the New China; it is a heavy
adaptation of the Renaissance, with massive verandas added.
]

Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Race meet at the Jockey Club, Wong Nei Chong Valley, Hongkong.
The cosmopolitan crowd: Hindus, Portuguese, Britons, Americans,
Japanese, Chinese, Parsees, etc. Note the famous mat-shed for
the “Hoi Polloi” in the background. These immense structures are
erected overnight, with matting and bamboo.
]

Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

The railway breaking through the wall of Peking. The immense new
railway development of China has been put under the direction of
the Honorable Sun Yat Sen.
]

Many have asked what was the organization of the crown colony of Hongkong Island, where 3,000 white troops, a navy, 2,000 Indian troops, and 500 British, Indian and Chinese police guard and rule 3,000 white men and 500,000 Chinese so successfully that after paying her own expenses, Hongkong continues, what she was the first colony to offer, to pay to the British government a large sum for military and naval expenses. The government is organized under the Home Colonial Office, as follows: a governor, the general of British troops in China, a local colonial secretary, an attorney-general, a colonial treasurer, a director of public works, a registrar-general, a superintendent of police, a clerk of councils, four white civilians, and two Chinese civilians, the six latter serving mainly for the honor. The famous Sanitary Board serves as a separate commission. Almost every one will admit that this is a compact, graftless, powerful and very economical organization, and it has more than answered expectations in a worldwide fame, both for Britain and China. The able newspapers of the ports are the Opposition, and keep the government up to efficiency. There is only one flaw, which may soon be remedied. There should be a director of education, for the purpose of honoring education, and not because education is backward in the progressive colony, which has had so many hero governors and cultured heads of department. Their great deeds would fill volumes as yet unwritten, for the many authors who have lived and served at Hongkong have not written of themselves. _In modestia magnus!_ Hongkong has had some famous regiments in its garrison, musical and sporting life. After the South African War the Royal Welsh, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire regiments came. In 1911 the noted Yorkshire Light Infantry were in garrison. Their fine bands, often massed with the Indian regiments’ bands, are the feature in the musical life of the royal colony. The Yorkshires served in garrisoning the foreign settlement on Shameen Island, Canton, when, following the revolution of 1911, the pirate chief Luk seized the forts around Canton. Over at Kowloon, the mainland section of the colony in 1860, was mobilized the army of Sir Hope Grant’s 13,000 British troops and Baron Gros’ 6,000 French troops for the Taku-Peking campaign, and though the existence of their nation was at stake, the southern Chinese did not make a protest against this mobilization on what was then China’s territory.

The municipal organization at Amoy is seven councilmen, two of whom are a clergyman and a physician. They employ a captain-superintendent, and a judge who sits in a “Mixed Court” with a Chinese mandarin. American naval officers were given warm receptions by the Chinese of Amoy when the battleship fleet went round the world in 1908. The island-dotted and hill-surrounded harbor is one of the finest and most beautiful in China, and there is a great future before the port. At one time it was the largest tea port in China. The foreign settlement is on the hilly Kulangsu Island. The streets to see are Likin, Temple, Bootmaker, etc. The native Chamber of Commerce entertained the visiting members of the American Chambers of Commerce in 1910 in the Nan Pu Tu Temple. There are notable clubs and theaters; the Kwan Tai and other temples. The scenery is famous for the Valley of 10,000 Boulders, a sort of “Garden of the Gods”, in which the Deified Rock is worshiped. Many of the boulders are engraved by nature-worshipers. Note should be taken of the dainty architecture of the White Stag Temple and gates. The London Mission at the boat landing has partially adopted the Chinese style of architecture in the up-curling cornices. Forts which have seen hard service are placed on the hills. The foreign race course and jockey club is under the hill where the noted Lampotah Temple stands. Amoy is particularly famous for the best oysters, coolie oranges, pumeloes (grapefruit), fish, game, sugar, ginger and grasscloth in China. At Amoy stone buildings are seen everywhere, and extend southward through Fukien and Kwangtung provinces. The natives, who have a little Arab blood, and who often wear turbans as well as hats, are tall, turbulent, humorous and curious. There is much infanticide, because the small farms are only able to support sons. Amoy is connected by railway with Changchow on the Lung (Dragon) River, and it is planned to have a coast railway connecting all these cities from Shanghai to Canton. There is almost daily steamship connection with Hongkong. Native Amoy City is on a large island. The walls, which climb straight up the hills, are about eight miles around. The city was taken by the republicans on November 12, 1911, and there were many subsequent engagements with pirates when American marines from the _Monterey_ had to be landed. Centuries ago the people of this province offered the most stubborn resistance to the Manchus when that dynasty conquered China. The dialect is the most isolated in China, showing that the northern ruling Chinese influenced the people very slightly. To instance:

In Fukien In Mandarin
---------- -----------
Hokchiu Fuchau
Amoy Hsia-men
Quemoy Chinmen

Though the port was formally opened to foreign trade in 1842, the East India Company had hongs here as early as 1661 and up to 1730.

There is much for the antiquarian to trace as he follows the traditions of Arab visits in centuries preceding the Portugese discovery, at Canton. We hear reports that St. Thomas, the disciple, and Mohammed’s uncle journeyed here, taking the route none ever has since, across Persia, India and Burma. The tourist should not fail to visit the noble park of thousands of examination stalls, where the old classical learning held rule from Confucius’ time until recently. There is evidence enough that the state has grasped the new educational conditions recommended by the great Emperor Kwang Hsu, and the Cantonese reformers, in the splendid Kwangtung normal college, which consists of two wings and a tower building in the style of the University of New York. A noble stucco wall, pierced with portholes, surrounds the college. There is also the Canton Christian College, established in the fine Martin Hall. It is supported by Americans. American statesmanship and philanthropy will miss their glorious opportunity if they do not soon erect at Canton the preparatory department of a comprehensive American-Chinese university, the higher classes to be at Peking or Nanking. Trace should also be made of the factory of Milner & Bull, of New York, which sheltered Robert Morrison in 1807, when he was preparing for his immortal translations and dictionary. This was the time when American tradesmen of New York, Philadelphia and Boston showed keen sympathy with statesmanship and learning. Olyphant & Company, of New York and Canton, backed the printing of the priceless _Chinese Repository_, and brought fifty missionaries free from New York in their famous clipper ships. The Boston merchants who ran regular lines in those days to Canton, and had factories there, were Forbes, Perkins, Cabot, Sturgis, Russell, Cushing and Coolidge.

The morbid will want to see the execution ground in the Thirteen Factories section. It has no rival as the bloodiest spot on this earth. Governor Yeh, of Kwangtung, during the Taiping rebellion in October, 1856, beheaded 100,000 rebels here, and during the pirates’ attack under Luk, at Canton, in March, 1912, executions were part of each day’s work here. The ground is small and insignificant looking, and when not legally in use is used for spreading pottery in the sun. This Thirteen Factories section is in rather bad odor as an entertainer of opium smugglers and counterfeiters. Confucius’ temple near the Examination Park should not be missed, not for its beauty, but for its significance in the national ethics of so many centuries of one uninterrupted idea. The Parade Ground, under the eastern wall of the old city, should be visited, for here the nucleus of China’s new army, which we will some day hear much of, is training. China must learn to marry martial force and productive mechanics to, what through the long ages she has been preeminent in, literature, agriculture and art. In the western suburbs, the looms of the silk weavers, the native hospital, the Temple of Longevity, and the Temple of Five Hundred Genii are of exceeding interest, and if one can go as far as the White Cloud Hills there is the historic spot to see, where Morrison baptized, in 1804, Tsai Ah Ko, the first Protestant convert in China.

Various other places of interest are Tsiang Lan Kiai (Physic Street), which is protected from the sun with matting; Ma An Street, where the shoe shops are; Book Store and Jade Streets, with their tea saloons; the Hall of Green Tea Merchants radiant in porcelain; the Pok Chai native hospital; and the public gardens which were confiscated from the rich salt merchant, Pun Shih Cheng, because he evaded the law by smuggling, etc. China first prophesied that restitutionary besides prohibitive laws will yet be adopted world-wide to straighten out the economic tangle. Many modern improvements have come to Canton, such as a wide modern bund, electric cars and light, water, sanitary buildings, hospitals, etc. The University of Pennsylvania and the American Presbyterian Women have notable medical establishments at Canton, which city is connected with the early life of Doctor Sun Yat Sen, who has become immortal by formulating the republican Chinese rebellion and nation. Canton is already a railroad center, having rails east to Hongkong, south to medieval Macao, and north toward Hankau, and she proposes to link up west by running a railroad to Nanning and Yunnan. There is a vast steamer and launch traffic to Hongkong and up the West (Si) and North (Pe) Rivers, and along the iron-bound coast. Canton is the largest and most representative city of ethnical, republican and commercial China. Its stores and small factories are decidedly the most notable, efficient and varied in the wide land. The foreign settlement on Shameen Island in the Pearl River has every luxury in the way of modern clubs, hotels and residences, and in the native city there are clubs where the foreigner and native gentleman are trying to approach nearer to each other. Canton has two dialects, the Cantonese and the Hakka, and I know of no better authority on them than my old friend, Dyer Ball, the veteran author and linguist of Hongkong, though Canton has had many famous foreign students among her foreign residents in exile. The curious Hakka tribe composes one-third of the inhabitants of Canton. They can be distinguished by vivacity, by the flat hat with valance, worn by the women, and by their love of jewelry. The sanpan, junk, slipper boat and launch people, the most distinctive feature of Canton’s life, are largely Hakka. For further information regarding this tribe, which is also largely in evidence at Hongkong, Amoy and Swatow, I would recommend Dyer Ball’s authoritative books. _Dutch Folly Island_ commemorates an early settlement of trading Hollanders.

The writer in his book, _The Chinese_, dealt at length with the oldest foreign settlement in China, the Portugese city of Macao, and its famous author, Camoens, who wrote _The Lusiads_. Authors who have written on quaint medieval Macao are Doctor Eitel, Norton Kyshe, Montalto de Jesus, Kutschera, Ljungstedt, the famous Sir John Bowring and the immortal Camoens himself. The largest library on the subject is to be found in the National Libraries of Lisbon, Coimbra, and other educational centers of old Portugal. The first American consuls lived at Macao, as did also the noted Jesuit explorer Abbé Huc, in 1840, in the seminary here. The British artist, Chinnery, lived and painted at Macao, as did the lovely Chinese colorist, Nam Cheong. Edmund Roberts, the first American ambassador of the United States “to Siam, Cochin and Muscat” died of bubonic plague here on June 12, 1836. In a study of Macao the old volume of the _Chinese Repository_ should not be left unsearched. In a temple at Wang Hiya, beyond the quaint Porto Cerco gate, the first commercial treaty between America and China was signed respectively by Cushing, Daniel Webster’s son Fletcher, and Ki Ying. The remarkable miniature garden at the governor’s summer palace on the Monte Road should be seen, and rather amusing miniature photo statues are to be seen in the cemeteries. The largest cement factory in China (British owned) is on Green Island, which is connected by a causeway with Macao. The silted up harbor is being dredged in an effort to bring the long lost shipping back to old Macao. There is to be railway connection with Canton, and there is palatial steamer connection with Hongkong and Canton. The modern hotels, such as the Boa Vista and the Hing Kee, are excellent, the former occupying an unusually scenic site. The drives and Praya Grande are delightful. Macao is famous for its medieval carnivals and processions. It has an ambitious Chinese population whose leading spirits are the progressive Ho Sui Tin and Fong families. Its gambling houses are possibly notorious, and its opium farm, now somewhat restricted, was once a great thorn in international and hygienic matters.

Off the three-mile limit at Kowhowyang anchorage, the smuggling steamers occasionally lie. The trouble between Japan and China over the “Tatsu Maru” incident, and the subsequent severe trade boycott, which nearly bankrupted a Japanese trans-Pacific steamship and coastal line, will be recalled. The Chinese and Portuguese are constantly at swords’ points over harbor questions and the inclusion of the large islands of Lapa, Joao and Taipa in the beautiful colony, which would have been rushed long ago by the Chinese but for fear of Britain which supports Portugal “for auld acquaintance’ sake” and the memories of Wellington’s peninsular campaign when Portugal assisted Britain in her need. Chinese and Portuguese gunboats are always watching each other in the rather turbulent waters.

Lovely flowery Macao, of fast and festival, is the favorite health resort of Hongkong, because of its sou-west monsoon in the summer months. The wave of the Portuguese republican revolution took a month to reach Indian Goa and Cathayan Macao. The newspapers were read by the soldiers in the two beautiful barracks which stand high over Cape Sao Francisco and beneath Monte Fort. They were then loaned to the sailors on the gunboat _Patria_ which rose and fell on the yellow tide in the offing. On November 29, 1910, the sailors of the _Patria_ landed, marched to the square where the Senato Leal stands on high ground on Rua Central in the center of the closely built city. There three volleys were fired as a signal to the troops who, a mile away, broke into the armories and armed with ball cartridge ready for liberty’s business! The Legionaires Regiment first proceeded to the Santa Clara Convent, drove the nuns to the steamboats lying in the inner harbor, and forced them to sail for Hongkong, forty miles away, the objection to the long intrenched religious orders being that they successfully compete with business by not paying taxes. Then the revolutionists, dragging cannon, marched to the artistic government “Palais” on the picturesque Praya Grande, where the governor and representatives of the Senato Leal were forced at the bayonet’s point to agree to the expulsion of favored religious orders, the establishment of a republic in Portugal and her colonies, the suppression of the oligarchic and religious organ, _Vida Nova_, and similar reforms obtained by the republicans in Portugal. Most wonderful to relate, as a new sign on the horizon of the twentieth century, the Chinese viceroy of Kwangtung province brought up his Chinese army to stand by and see that order elsewhere was maintained while European revolutionists, European monarchists and reactionary Catholics fought out questions of representative and popular government in a corner of the sacred soil of old China. Correctly speaking then, it was little historic Portugal, and not ancient China, that first established a republic on Chinese soil, and Portugal’s republican influence, _multum in parvo_, as well as America’s and France’s, has been influential with Chinese reformers.

Fuchau, the capital of turbulent Fukien province, is situated twenty-five miles from the coast on one of the most romantic rivers of China, the Min. “Fu” means happy, and is the most used word in superstitious China, if we except perhaps a “strange oath” or two, and the family name Chang, which almost half of the Chinese carry. This city lies in a river plain surrounded by a glorious amphitheater of hills. With Hongkong, Fuchau joins as the two most scenic ports of China. The wide walls are thirty feet high, ten miles around, and up a mountain on one side, and there are seven fort gates, the most notable being the North Tower, with its curious spirit shrines. The most noted temples are those to the goddess Kwan Yun, the God of War, and Ching Hwang Temple. The seven-storied White Pagoda is famous. It has Romanesque doors and stunted galleries with railings. It is more ponderous than beautiful, and is remarkable for its great antiquity. The city is a noted educational center, missionary and native, It was a reform center even back into the Dowager Empress Tse Hsi’s day in 1897 and 1898, and produced its martyr, young Lin, who fell a victim of that reactionary Jezebel. Six miles south of the city on Ku-Shan, 1,700 feet high, is the noted Bubbling Well Monastery. The chair ride there affords a wonderful view. Fuchau is a health resort, as it has many hot springs. The Pacific Coast Chamber of Commerce was entertained by the city guilds at the Nan Pu Tu Temple in October, 1910. The valley of boulders is notable, as are also the rich pumelo groves. Fuchau used to be a great tea port. The trade declined from 1898 to 1907, but it is picking up again with the increased demand for China teas. Pagoda Island exhibits a severely plain and ancient pagoda and some remarkable Pai Piku (white stern) junks of the olden time. An ancient bridge nine centuries old, with sixty arches, on which are many overhanging shops, propped from the piers, connects one of the islands.

Fuchau went over to the rebel provisional government in October, 1911, but the Manchu city was not captured until a month later. There is a naval arsenal here, a dock, navy school, mint and a foreign settlement on Nan Tai Island. The climate is extremely trying.

Many unique costumes and turbans are to be seen. Fukien province people have some Arab blood in them, though the Mohammedan religion has been lost. They boast that they have never been conquered, and that many of the notorious pirates are Fuchau men. Their women wear a head-dress that looks like the model of an air-ship. There are excellent Methodist and Congregational schools, an American hospital, and a fine London mission which has done what missions should do in architecture. It has adopted to a degree the characteristic and beautiful Chinese style. All the missions and foreign trade buildings should strive to retain this wonderful art instead of daring to bring square ugliness or Greek coldness of column to artistic China, where it does not fit well in so warm a land. Down at the seaside bamboos are placed in the beds so that the oysters may cling to them. There are factories for glass filigree lamps. Trips should be made to the Yuan Fu Monastery, built on props on Wu Hu (Five Tiger) range, and up to which five hundred steps have been cut; the Paeling tea hills, fifteen miles north; the olive and orange groves; and the hot mineral springs. Fuchau is to have railway connection north and south. With Soochow, Fuchau is the center of the lacquer art, and old specimens are highly prized. In 1885 the French fleet under Admiral Courbet sailed into Fuchau and battered at the forts and the city, virtually compelling the Chinese for the time to cede the great province to Tonquin. This is what the Chinese call the “Sacrilege of Fuchau”. The city is also the center of tinfoil workers, their product being used in great quantities in making the gold and silver models which are burned at the graves. Beautiful heavy wall paper is also made. The noted sinologue, Professor Parker, of Manchester University, the witty author of _John Chinaman_, etc., was once British consul at Fuchau.

Ningpo (Peaceful Wave) in friendly Buddhist Chekiang province, could be called the Azalea City, and is one of the most delightful and picturesque cities of China. It is the second oldest in its relations with Europe, the Portuguese having founded a trading settlement here in 1522. The city is moated, and the walls are broken with six gates. Old Krupp cannons lie about on the parapet. The best wood carvers, masons, and varnish makers of the kingdom work here, and their services are sought for all over China. Its artists also are famous. Ningpo lies twelve miles from the sea at the head of the Tatsieh River. Three streams branch out into the hills, which lie spread around in a most picturesque panorama, including valleys, canals and lakes. It is a great fishing center, and its sailors are venturesome. The fast river slipper boats of Ningpo are noted far and wide. The inhabitants do not disdain the use of such a modern thing as ice, as the many straw-covered, peaked ice houses show. Much tea and silk are produced. Excellent stone carving is done, as witness that gem of architecture, the Fukien men’s Guild Hall, with its carved dragon-entwined columns, comical stone lions, and splendid, up-curving tiled roofs. The screens and bronze urns at the many temples are also a delight in this center of culture, the new rights of women, engineering and commerce. There are successfully run native cotton mills, and the district produces fine matting, rice, oils, varnish, sepia, bamboo, lumber, tea, game, flowers, rape, barley, tallow trees, etc. There is a curious street covered with pailoo arches to widows who would not remarry, to scholars, children, etc. There is a foreign quarter with its splendid bund, race course, house boats, clubs, churches, hill bungalows, etc.

No Chinese city affords more delightful excursions to the hills, waterfalls, rapids like the Wenchow, and the wonderful Buddhist monasteries like the noted Tien Dong and the Shih To. The trips to the Ta Lang and Snowy Valleys are exceedingly beautiful. Outside the city the temple to the sailor’s patron goddess, Ma Tsu Pu, at the east gate, is particularly fine in lines, proportion, dignity and rich detail. It was erected in 1680 by sailors of Fukien, the neighboring province. These precious old temples are the last precious gems of a great age in art. The new times in learning, religion, politics and commerce are bringing in an ugly architecture. Ningpo is strongly influenced in Buddhism by the nearness of Phu Tho Island of the Chusan group. There is a quaint pontoon bridge over one of the streams. It has shops upon it, and is the center of a fair. The women of Ningpo are known for their fine needlework, and the old schools were celebrated for their men of letters among the literati officials. The old Tien Fung pentagonal pagoda is perhaps the oldest in China, dating back 1,200 years. Its gold and white tiles have fallen, and the brick and mortar work of the seven stories is exposed.

Politically, Ningpo is progressive. It went over to the “Han Republic” rebels on November 5, 1911. In the early days of the Portuguese at this port, the Ningpo men rose up, destroyed thirty-five Portuguese ships, and slaughtered eight hundred of the crews, because they claimed the foreigners had gone inland and captured Chinese women on the Sabine plan. The city was captured by the Taiping rebels in 1862. Off Ningpo a fierce engagement between the Chinese and English fleets took place in October, 1841. Nimrod Bay, near Ningpo, is to be the central base for the new Chinese navy. In the turmoil of 1898, when the nations of Europe were striving to partition China, despite the protests of America and Britain, the French, on July 16th, landed marines at Ningpo and tried to take a temple graveyard for a settlement, incidentally adding twenty Chinese to the number to be buried in the graveyard! Ningpo is soon to have a railway connection with the west and south.

Hangchow, the capital of Chekiang province, is famous as the city of the Roaring Tidal Bore. The walls are twelve miles around. The bore is best seen at Haining pagoda, east of the city. The tourist should go at moonlight to see the unforgettable white specter riding in on the wheels of the night. The legend is that the Wu prince, Tse Hsu, committed suicide, and the Chinese go to the bore to see him sweeping by in his fury. The stone-faced river wall has stone cradles built for junks to outride the terrific main bore. The city has railway and canal connection, and launch tows are now much used instead of sail. The Golden King Hill is in the center of the city by the lake side. It is crowned with a Buddhist temple. The lake has a causeway, lake temples and pagodas. The city is famous for its beautiful waterscapes, like the view of Western Lake (Si Hu), and the view from Thundering Peak Tower (Lui Fung Tah). This tower is without the usual ornate galleries, and shows the Arab influence which crept up the coast in the old days, and established itself at Hangchow in mosques, etc. Three separate attempts were made to capture China for Mohammedanism; they were made in Kansu, Yunnan and Chekiang provinces. The Red Imperial Palace at the lake side was once the center of the cultured Sung dynasty, thirteenth century. Marco Polo visited and praised the beautiful ancient city as follows: “Beyond dispute, it is the finest and noblest city in the world.” It is now a center of the silk, wine, fan, lantern, tea, tinfoil, camphor, hardware, book, vegetable oil, etc., trade. The city was captured by the republicans on November 5, 1911, the Tartar city strongly resisting. With Soochow, it is called the most fashionable city, and the home of the best dressed women of China. Doctor Main’s model leper hospital is here. The American Presbyterians have erected on a lovely hillside over the water a number of buildings of the important new Hangchow University. The Tartar walled city is on the northwest. There are a governor’s yamen, many pailoo honorary arches, the massive Great Peace Bridge, canals, famous temples, shops and fine residences, for the Chinese of this section seem to have a civic pride. The rolling suburbs of Hangchow are the most beautiful in China, reminding one perhaps of England’s lake country. The modern parliament buildings of the province of Chekiang are erected at Hangchow. There is also a native university and normal school.