The vast majority lived in villages in the countryside. Education was beyond peasant family reach, healthcare was minimal, relying on traditional herbs and acupuncture, with infant mortality high and life expectancy low. The practice of foot binding was still common though outlawed in 1902, and rich men kept concubines. Agriculture relied on muscle power for sowing, reaping and transportation of crops and global depression 1931 to 35 hit farmers hard. Soya, tea, opium, cotton and tobacco had only just begun to be grown