During Qianlong's reign, the British sent many missions to China, because the British were full of curiosity about the situation in China, and many British believed that China was full of gold, and Chinese were also wearing fine clothing, so they wanted to get rich through China.
But when they actually came to China, they found that the scene of China was completely different from what they imagined, and in order to entertain the British mission, the Chinese emperor sent many peasants to serve the British, and those peasants were the first impression of the British team on the Chinese, they were not very gorgeous, and they could even be described as shabby, not only that, they were also very poor. When the British finish eating, they are always reluctant to throw away the rest of the rice, because they usually can't eat anything, so even if the British have the rest of the food they will compete to grab, the British drink the remaining tea, they are reluctant to pour it, they will wash the tea again, and then brew it themselves. British civilians are very well nourished, so they are generally very fat, but they find that Chinese are almost all very emaciated.
Chinese villages and they imagined is not the same, in their impression of China is a rich land, but China's villages are very desolate, almost all the houses are made of mud, and the roof is not gold bricks, the roof is covered with thatch, but such a house can not shield the wind and rain, the British rainy days, so their house must be a tile house, in the Chinese village, they rarely see the tile house, the village tile is not covered with a lot of green plants, and there is no one in the field to cultivate, it seems to be abandoned for a long time, Such a village could be destroyed by a flood.
There is no doubt that the scene of Kangqian's prosperous life is not unwarranted, qianlong is indeed a very wise king in Chinese history, so under his rule the Qing Dynasty must have been very prosperous, but there are some conditions that human factors cannot control, and it is difficult for him to take care of every corner of China, because China's territory is very vast, and the prosperous scene described by foreigners is probably the area around the capital, the Chinese border is constantly in turmoil, there are often ethnic minorities harassing, and the people's lives are not happy.
The Qing Dynasty's policy of closing the country to the outside world made the mainland's economy and military completely backward by 100 years, but these 100 years allowed European countries to achieve great development, even before the closed country, the gap between the living standards of Chinese and Europeans was very large.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the lower peasants in Britain could live a well-off life in China, and they also had a lot of rich ingredients for three meals a day, but because of China's large population, not everyone could eat and drink enough, even the national treasury could not feed the whole of China, so the number of beggars in China could match the population of a European country.
After the Industrial Revolution, the British gradually developed and grew, and they quickly became the world's first economic power, so the living standards of their ordinary peasants were equivalent to the living standards of the people in the mainland Capital.
The scene of the British and the mainland countryside is also very different, the rural areas of the mainland are almost all farmers without knowledge, most of them can only live in poverty, and the British countryside has many villas, there are many green plants around the countryside, which is also the reason why the British are very disappointed in the Chinese countryside, because the British peasant life is very comfortable, after the Industrial Revolution, they are also very good at enjoying life, and the Chinese peasants have indeed been suffering from life, the British population is small, the average distribution per person is more, Moreover, the economic level of the United Kingdom is high, so the quality of life of rural people is also high, many British aristocrats and rich people are tired of urban life, they will live in small villas in the countryside, so the economic situation of the countryside has not lagged behind.