Chinese Hotels.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 107, 1 November 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

Chinese Hotels.

Slow and tedious as travelling in . Kwung Hsu's empire is, it could seldom i be called uncomfortable were it not for : the lack of decent sleeping and eating i accommodation by the way. Like everyi thing else, Chinese inns ire part of a system to which one must submit or else ; give up the idea of ever seeing any more of China than the treaty ports. la : order to avoid inns, the traveller from the outside Avorld often longs for the privilege of sleeping out of doors, or of roll1 ing up in his sheepskins on the floor of i his car; but this he cannot do "without danger of being arrested as a vagrant. For a thousand years or so respectable Chinamen when away from home have spent the night at the inn -which happened to be at the end of each daj r 's . journey, and it, is, therefore, radical teA the point of treabon for any one to suggest that the inn system can be in any , Avay improved. A big gateway on the street opens into a huge courtyard, surrounded on three sides by a, one-story building. It is usual- , ly built of mud, with a tiled roof. The courtyard is filled with the carts and' luggage of patrons. For those who have , stopped for only one meal the animals are not uuhitched from the carts, and one has to be very circumspect in moving about among them in order to avoid a kick from a mule disturbed in eating his fodder. . Animals whose owners will spend the night in the inn are kept in a low shed adjoining the sleeping apartments. Chinese inns are without register op j clerks. On riding through the gateway; your bridle rein is seized by a dirty boy, who helps you to dismount, shouting J wildly meanwhile for the proprietor, who j presently looms up through the wilder- .. ness of carts and mules. Proprietor and boy then hold a parley as to what rooms :> are eligible, and then a door is pushed ,_ open and the traveller is shown to his s apartment. It is usually about twelve" ,f feet square. The walls and floor are of y hard mud, and so are the beds, which , i} extend entirely across the side of the d room, with only space enough between ;p them for a small table and one chair.' The room is lighted by one window, in which paper takes the place of glass. The s- first duty of the proprietor in making a m patron comfortable is to stop up the holes ,y in the paper window pane. He never te tears the paper off entirely and replaces ii- it with a new one, because tne sheet of Id paper is worth about one-tenth of a cent, y- and the innkeeper is not wasteful. In- • stead, he pastes little slips of paper over Id the holes until all the light that filters ra through it is of a mottled hue. >v At one end of the mule thed is the ly kitchen of the inn. It is here that the it meals for all the patrons are prepared, >d to be eaten in the rooms. The menu is je not elaborate. It consists only of bowls of rice and tea. Should the traveller desire at a greater variety of food he can buy it as himself iv the market aud his own serof vant can cook it in the kitchen of the • inn. To sleep on the bed of a Chinese m inn would, for a foreigner, be- an imposss sibility, were it not thao he in always ,si» te exhausted at the end of each day's 1 jouriu ney that he finds it difficult to remain t- awake ten minutes after alighting from id his pony. He lies down on the mat that 3- covers the hard heap of mud and suri, prises himself at the soundness of his 2- slumber. ', The one redeeming thing about the inn f- is its cheapness. Just as the traveller is d about to depart in the morning the prote prietor tells him the amount of his bill. Everything is charged on the "European [• plan." Every cup of tea, every rushl - light candle, the paper window pane, are 0 all itemized in the long list which the c 'proprietor reels off in sing-song, but the c total is surprisingly low., The cost of :e food and lodging for one night for a n treveller and two servants, with stabling J " and fodder for his 2>onies and cart mules, '" is about two shillings. d Besides an inn for the general public, " s every large town possesses a "Kung : " Kuan," or building set aside for the use c of officials or travellers provided with ■ government passports. The Kung Kuan c is not a private institution, but is the ' property of the municipality, and its onre • and maintenance are one of the manifold ■' responsibilities of the district mandarin. 1 When no one eligible for a Kung lvuan is ' passing through the town it U kept clos1 ed, but - as soon as the mandi rin is noti- " fied of the coming of a traveller officially conducted he sends a "banchniti" to open it, sweep the floors, engage servants and a make it ready for occupancy. The "banchaili" is a member of the mandarin's official household. He is a .sort of major , domo. The Kung Kuan usually consists of [ beveral bride buildings surrounding a ' stone-paved courtyard. On his arrival' the , traveller finds the "banclmid" wailing ;\t j the door of the main building to receive him. lie hands him the mandarin's card, ( and in exchange takes one of the travel- , ler's. This serves us a sort of receipt, [ indicating that the guest has arrived and [ is now under the protection of the muni- \ cipality. Kung Kuans are usually far cleaner than most Chinese houses, al- , though from a long period of disuse they . are often stuffy aud close. They are arranged and furnished with . an especial care to the preservation of . official dignity. Unless the traveller wish- . 'es to humiliate himself in the eyes- of . every one in the Kung Kuan he must • i take great care never to sit anywhere r than at the left of a table or to sleep > in any room but the one on the left of the entrance. To take the right side in j China, when an official is not in the room, 1 is a lowering of one's self-respect to a de- : gree that cannot be forgiven. For all practical purposes, the "banchaili" ib the j proprietor of the Kung Kuan. I( is he . who issues the orders to the servants and ; superintends the preparation of the meals. i In some cases they are furnished by the r "banchaili," but more often the travellei ? must purchase his own food, which ii - only cooked by the attendants of tht Kung Kuan. Theoretically the occupancy i, of a Kung Kuan is honorary smd without i pay to any one, but actually quite the.

reverse is true. By way of saying goodDye to the traveller the "banchaiti" makes i low "kow-tow" and asks for a tip, or 'cumshaw." By long usage this has been reduced to a fixed sum, proportionate to the number of the traveller's party and ihe length of time spent in the Kung Kuan. — Francis H. Nichols, in tne'^New York Mail and Express.