Its provincial Treasurer is believed to occupy the richest post held by any official in the empire.

It is worth noticing that the present provincial Treasurer, Kung Chao-yuan, has just been made (1894) Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, and one can well believe how intense was his chagrin when he received this appointment from the "Imperial Supreme" compelling him, as it did, to forsake the tombs of his ancestors--to leave China for England on a fixed salary, and vacate the most coveted post in the empire, a post where the opportunities of personal enrichment are simply illimitable.
In Suifu there are two magistrates, both with important yamens.

The Fu magistrate is the "Father of the City," the Hsien magistrate is the "Mother of the City;" and the "Mother of the City" largely favours the export opium trade.

When Protestant missionaries first came to the city in 1888 and 1889 there was little friendliness shown to them.

Folk would cry after the missionary, "There goes the foreigner that eats children," and children would be hurriedly hidden, as if from fear.