Wheat and millet rather than rice are
their staple food. In their orchards apples, pears and peaches take
the place of oranges.
At Kiao-chao (Kiau-Chau) the Germans, who occupied that port in
1897, have built a beautiful town opposite the Island of Tsingtao,
presenting a fine model for imitation, which, however, the Chinese
are not in haste to copy. They have constructed also a railway from
the sea to Tsinan-fu, very nearly bisecting the province. Weihien
is destined to become a railroad centre; and several missionary
societies are erecting colleges there to teach the people truths
that Confucius never knew. More than half a century ago, when a
missionary distributed Christian books in that region, the people
brought them back saying, "We have the works of our Sage, and they
are sufficient for us." Will not the new arts and sciences of the
West convince them that their Sage was not omniscient?
In 1866 I earned the honours of a _hadji_ by visiting the tomb
of Confucius--a magnificent mausoleum surrounded by his descendants
of the seventieth generation,
[Page 31]
one of whom in quality of high priest to China's greatest teacher
enjoys the rank of a hereditary duke.
On that occasion, I had come up from a visit to the Jews in Honan.
Having profited by a winter vacation to make an expedition to
K'ai-fung-fu, I had the intention of pushing on athwart the province
to Hankow. The interior, however, as I learned to my intense
disappointment, was convulsed with rebellion.
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