RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
passing an examination pupils may enter a higher school in Peiping, though a special permit for this is necessary which has not been received as yet. If they do not go to Peiping, they can be appointed as masters or as clerks in the yamen.
There are two other colleges for training teachers, opened two years ago. »Juti sy fan hsiao tang» has 8o pupils and 8 professors and »Su tchyng sy fan hsiao tang» about too pupils and 4 professors. Only adults are admitted and candidates must have a »kongming», i.e., they must be in municipal service. The same subjects seem to be taught in both colleges, the curriculum being rather more extensive in the former, as masters for middle schools (in the »fu» towns) are trained there, while the latter only entitles graduates to masterships in the lower schools (in the »hsien» towns). As instruction in both colleges is very similar, the difference in the education of the masters must be infinitesimal. The principal »Wang darin», a tall, elderly, serious man who also studied in Japan for several years, is at the head of both colleges. Some of the masters are said to have studied in Japan, though their studies seem to have been comparatively short. Chinese, history, geography, mathematics, natural science, topography (?), gymnastics, Japanese and English (?) are taught. The course lasts 3-4 years, but is less extensive than in the »Kao teng hsiao tang». That is what the different masters told me. Some subject may have been omitted and the information may possibly not correspond exactly to the facts. I was told, for instance, that a couple of maps on the walls had been drawn by pupils, but in one of them I recognised a good map of Tsinchow made by an elderly Christian Li-tui, who gave me Chinese lessons during my stay here, and 1 asked, if the pupil's name happened to be Li. This did not worry them in the least and in the evening they very kindly sent me three bad maps of Kanchow and the surrounding district, purporting to have been drawn by pupils, gummed on to yellow silk and obviously borrowed from a yamen. Tea and bad sweets are served in great quantities during such visits, but reliable information cannot be obtained with the same facility. In regard to the buildings these two schools are considerably more modest and much smaller. Here, too, Japanese pictures are displayed on all the walls.
Not much has been done yet to stamp out opium smoking. It is constantly reported that in so and so many months officials who smoke will be dismissed, soldiers will be discharged, the growing area will be restricted, shops will be closed etc., but the officials still continue to smoke with the Viceroy at their head, soldiers smoke in secret, farmers plant, merchants sell and both do their best to cheat the authorities out of their taxes. Men employed by the authorities visit the bazaars and describe the awful consequences of opium smoking in lurid terms. Notices are broadcast by the Viceroy, declaring that the consumption of opium is to cease within ten years. Europeans make fun of us, they say, because we are weakened and become effeminate by opium smoking. We must show them that we are as strong as they are. The establishment of a sugar factory is promised and by growing beet farmers will earn as much as they do now by growing opium.
While these steps are being taken to stamp out opium smoking, an office has been established, »Tu juo dsu», for planting and selling opium. Two years ago farmers paid a tax of o.3 taels for a mou of opium. Last year an abortive attempt was made to transfer the tax to the buyer, and this year the tax has again been imposed on the land and
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