Rong Hong believed his poor parents sent him to a foreign school because they noticed the increasing business with foreigners in the south, and thought that the ability to speak a foreign language would gain him a decent job.

“But what I later accomplished was far beyond their expectations when they sent me to the school.”

Rong Hong arrived in Macao and his eyes were greeted by unfamiliar scenes. The harbor bristled with sails and masts from foreign lands. The burned-out ruins of St. Paul, still graceful, stood massively above the horizon. Foreign sailors and missionaries were seen everywhere on the piers. When Rong Hong was led to his teacher, Mrs. Gutzlaff, the first western woman he ever saw, he immediately hid behind his father. So Rong Hong entered Mrs. Gutzlaff's school and began to study English, arithmetic, painting and the Bible.

After four years, the school announced its closure. And Mrs. Gutzlaff left China for home. In 1839, the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, Viceroy of Hu Guang Lin Zexu came to Guangzhou to ban the opium trade. Then China and UK declared war.

The secluded, ancient Chinese empire languished in opium fumes until its slumber was violently awakened by British warships. During the first opium war, China went through unrelenting miseries.

Rong left his studies. He returned to his village and began to take various odd jobs to support his family. Everything seemed to return to its normal track.

“No-one in the village knew that I could read and write English. When my sister told them, their curiosity was aroused.”

Farmers in the field called Rong to them, asking him to speak the foreigners' language and pledged rice as a reward.

“Heavy rewards fueled my courage. I recited the 26 letters aloud to them.”

Rong bartered the 26 English letters for bundles of rice. As he was working hard to earn petty sums of money to support his family, one day a missionary came to him.

“When she left, Mrs. Gutzlaff had told the missionary and schoolmaster, Reverend Brown, that "when the school is reopened, you must get these children back to study." She was quite concerned about Rong.”

"It is only later I found out that when Mrs. Gutzlaff had left Macao, she had entrusted the preacher-doctor to get me back to school once it reopened."

As instructed by Mrs. Gutzlaff, the missionary took Rong Hong, in 1842, to the Morrison Academy in Hong Kong, located on top of Morrison Hill. The schoolmaster Reverend Brown was also a graduate of Yale University.

Having been away from school for two years, Rong Hong now returned to study the Four Books and the Five Classics in Chinese, English writing, geography, vocal music, geometry, history, and the rest.

Four years later, Reverend Brown planned to return to America due to health problems. Before he left, he made an announcement.

“He said he would take a few students back with him to America, where they could finish their studies. Whoever wanted to go, please stand up.”