Album: Tengchow College Museum, Penglai (2018)

A tour to the Tengchow College Museum in Penglai was organized for foreign visitors gathered in Yantai for the opening of the Chefoo School exhibit (Yantai City Museum) in March, 2018. We were hosted by the Yantai Foreign Affairs Office (and, while in Penglai, also enjoyed visits to the Penglai Christian Church as well as the Penglai Pavilion).

As a foreigner with a professional interest in the history of modern public education, I highly recommend this museum to both Chinese and foreign viewers. It provides an excellent history of the early years of Western-style education in China. I also appreciate how credit is given to the far-sighted efforts of some missionaries, mostly led by American Presbyterians, in developing a quality schooling experience for Chinese youth. Attempts were made by the founders to combine some of the best of both Chinese and International study content.

This was my second visit to the museum. (See link below for a more complete set of photos from my 2016 visit.)

Historically, Penglai was the first choice by the British for the Shandong trading port (resulting from the second Opium War). It is located about 100 km from Yantai along the coast of the Bohai Sea. By the early 1860s, however, British and other foreign trading nations were moving trade facilities to Yantai.

The first American Presbyterian missionaries arrived in Penglai in 1862 and attempted to establish schools for both boys and girls. It was the boys school that survived, developing after 20 years into Tengchow College. By 1900 it was moved to Weifang and merged with other mission schools for a time before its final move to Jinan where it became part of Cheeloo University.

As Chinese universities developed rapidly in the early twentieth century, graduates of Tengchow College provided significant numbers of teaching faculty to these new institutions. (See image of map below.)

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First published: 2018/04/14
Latest revision: 2019/04/17