离开在欧洲考察访问的最后一站英国后，大清帝国前直隶总督兼北洋大臣李鸿章乘“圣-路易斯”号邮轮于当地时间1896年8月28日抵达美国纽约，开始对美国进行访问。李鸿章在美国受到了美国总统克利夫兰的接见，并和美国一些要员及群众见面，受到了“史无前例的礼遇”(《纽约时报》)。9月2日上午9时许，李鸿章在纽约华尔道夫饭店接受了记者的采访。

“Your Excellency has said many kind things of us,” was the reporter’s first question.” Will not your Excellency also tell us in what respect we have failed to come up to your expectations?”

美国记者：尊敬的阁下，您已经谈了我们很多事情，您能否告诉我们，什么是您认为我们做得不好的事的呢？

“ I could not say anything bad about America,” replied the Viceroy,” I have nothing to complain of in the receptions given me. They were all that I could have expected. But there is one thing that surprises and disappoints me. You have too many political parties. I have thought much about your parties. There are so many of them they must bring about confusion. Could not your newspapers try to unite them, for the best interests of the country?”

李鸿章：我不想批评美国，我对美国政府给予我的接待毫无怨言，这些都是我所期待的。只是一件事让我吃惊或失望，那就是你们国家有形形色色的政党存在，而我只对其中一部分有所了解。其他政党会不会使国家出现混乱呢？你们的报纸能不能靠国家利益将各个政党联合起来呢？

“What, among the things your Excellency has seen in this country has interested you most?”

美国记者：那么阁下，您在这个国家的所见所闻中什么最使您最感兴趣呢？

“ I am delighted with everything that I have seen in America,” said Li,” Everything has pleased me so much that it ishard to say what has pleased me most. What has surprised me most has been the tall buildings, of twenty and more stories. I have never seen anything like them before, in China or in Europe. They seem so welll constructed that they would resist any wind, perhaps; but we could not put them up in China, because the typhoon would soon blow them down. They would be terribly inconvenient were it not for your fine elevators.”

李鸿章：我对我在美国见到的一切都很喜欢，所有事情都让我高兴。最使我感到惊讶的是20层或更高一些的摩天大楼，我在中国和欧洲从没见过这种高楼。这些楼看起来建得很牢固，能抗任何狂风吧？但中国不能建这么高的楼房，因台风会很快把它吹倒，而且高层建筑若没有你们这样好的电梯配套也很不方便。

“Does your Excellency favor the education of the common people of China?”

美国记者：阁下，您赞成贵国的普通百姓都接受教育吗？

“Our custom,” replied the Viceroy,” is to send all our boys [children, Dr. Mak put in parentheses, indicating thatboys are the only real children in China,] to public schools. We have good schools all over China, but only those whocan afford it send their boys to them. The poorer classes do not give their boys education. We have not so many schoolsor colleges as you have, but we are going to introduce more schools throughout our country.”

李鸿章：我们的习惯是送所有男孩上学。（翻译插话：在清国，男孩，才是真正的孩子。）我们有很好的学校，但只得付得起学费的富家子弟才能上学，穷人家的孩子没有机会上学。但是，我们现在还没有你们这么多的学校和学堂，我们计划将来在国内建立更多的学校。