The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-02
HOTELS IN CHINA.
All Cnder Police Control and Quiet q Thing
Unknown.


Hotels in China are quite uniform
INTELLECTUALLY. They never differ in
point of cleanliness and other details,
but they are almost invariably built in
the form of q quadrangle. inclosing q
court. The building is only one story
high. In front OF the quadrangle is a
space wide enough for wheeled vehicles
10 drive in. The front part of the
structure is occupied by the kitchen
and the restaurant, if there is any.
Among the sides of the quadrangle are
many small rooms. At the farther end
is the swell apartment, intended to be
occupied by guests of means and dis
tinction. This apartment consists in
variably OF three rooms-a sitting
room in the middle and a bed
room on each side. There is no
hotel clerk with a scintillating
diamond in his shirt front, the
innkecper fulfilling that capacity Incl
dentally to his other duties. There
are three classes of hotels in China.
To begin with. there are the business
inns, frequented by commercial trav-
elers, as one might say. They bear a
certain sort of analogy to the hostel
ries in our own country, where agents
with gripsacks full of merchandise
find accommodation. To these inns
traders go for the purpose of showing
and disposiug of their wares. In all
of the large cities there are provincial
inns, each of which is kept mp for the
a dot: Of ,,aO,,la from
ticular province, as Canton or SZech-
uen, receiving only guests who come
from that province. The hotels do a.
considera BILE postal business, transmit
ting letters through the hands of the
people who enjoy their hospitality.
The latter are not legally responsible
for the safe delivery of such mail, but
it is nevertheless conveyed to the in
tended recipients with the utmost reg
ularity. In this manner letters are
sent all the way from Picking to the
border of Burmah, the Journey requir
ing four or five months.
In addition to the kinds of inns I
have described there are official hotels
where high officials stop on their way
the country. These esta blish-
ments do not receive trades people.
The travelling official often takes the
whole hostelry for the accommodation
of himself and his retainers. He oc-
cupies the swell apartments in the
rear, while they are quartered in the
little rooms along the sides of the
quadrangle. 1.-The is a very elevated per-
sonage indeed he is likely to scorn the
inn, preferring to hire temple. Such
religious edifces ordinarily have rooms
attached to them, in which cornforta-
bic accommodation may be found. An
essential idea of the Buddhist doctrine
is hospitality to travellers. Some of
have been discovered in India were
made by native sovereign. who in
them conveys instruction as to how to
provide for wayfarers, telling what
medicine to give them, and even giving
directions as to the planting of trees
along roads for the purpose of afford
ing them shade. In Mongolia there
numerous and they will always accom-
nOdate a stranger.
AS in France and other European
the inns of China are under
police control. Each of them keeps
.ecord of its guests for the convenience
If the magistrate of the district. ANY
person is subjected to III
'pection and the passport of a foreign
r. is promptly asked for. The noise in !
I Chinese hotel is deafeniDg. 1t never
leases, day or nigh t. Each guests yells |
rom his door to the servants for what /
EVER he wants; the servants shout |
oack; the cook bawls out names of |
fishes as they are ready; the cart |
irivers wrangle; the mules bray and |
he pigs squeal. The first thing every !
person does on arriving is TO call for /
lot water to make tea. Everybody |
thinks tea at all hours. so that one |
servant does nothing but carry hot /
water for tea. The hotel furnishes
Nothing but hot water and oil lamps
or lighting; everything else is
harged extra. In north China, where
amcls are used as beasts of burden.
here are special inns which take cam
Is. The reason for this is that mules
re afraid of camels. Other inns adj
ertise to receive pigs. At the hotels
attic and horses are fed mostly on
orghum stalks, chopped up and mixed
With bran.-Philadelph Times.