Fukien province, China: women and children outside a school (?). Photograph by John Thomson, 1871.

Fifteen people in all, standing outside a large school (?) building. Fuzhou was the main mart for tea production and export, and its countryside is dotted with tea plantations. John Thomson visited one plantation in terraced hills about 15 miles north of Fuzhou. There the farms were usually small, seldom exceeding a few acres in size, and were rented by the poor from landlords, who paid the land tax. The tenants undertook to dispose of their crops to the landowners at a certain stipulated price. The fields were able to yield three crops each year, and many locals grew tea for the simple reason that it was the most valued cash crop. Thousands of poor women and children like these shown here were employed to pick out stems and stalks from the crop