the silk road at sea

according to specialists’textual research, old guangzhou exchanged products and culture through silk road on the sea; therefore, it was entitled to cultural road or friendship road. rich cultural remains have been preserved even up to now.

there are many cultural historical sites in guangzhou. they are guangxiao temple, xilai chudi, liurong temple, haizhuang temple (buddhism), temple of south china sea god, huaisheng temple and light pagoda, mausoleum of moslem masters, zoroastrians cemetery in changzhou, graveyard for foreigners, couper dock, silver boxes and bronze censers unearthed from nanyue king tomb, etc. the place names related to silk road on the sea, are xilai gu’an, fuxugang, guangta road, shisanhang, baoshun avenue, haopan street, shamian, pazhou, denmark island, frenchman island, etc.

[ancient pazhou tower]

pazhou tower is located in pazhou (near east xingang road) in haizhu district of guangzhou city, and by the side of the pearl river. pazhou tower dated back to the 28th year of wanli’s reign of the ming dynasty (1600). the tower took a shape of octagonal well. seen from the outside of the tower, a 50-metre high building, it took a look of nine-floored attic, but was 17 floors inside. it’s said there were golden sea turtles emerging from pearl river from time to time. due to this, the tower was called sea turtle tower but as the hump where the tower was built was located at the intersection of two mountains, seen from the distance, the shape of a lute was thrown into sight and its current name comes from this.

in ancient times, pazhou tower sat in the middle of a river, like a mainstay. for its height, it was used in navigation as positioning sign. accordingly, it gained itself another name—capital ornamental column. bazhou mainstay is one of the eight sceneries of guangzhou. pazhou tower is a relic under protection of provincial level. pazhou was ever known for its harbour, pazhou harbour, which is one of the historic sites of silk road on the sea. tourists nowadays, seated in the pleasure boats on the pearl river, can have a good look at pazhou tower.

[couper dock]
huangpu port is one of the operation sections in guangzhou. it is the largest coastal and ocean-going transportation pivot in south china. ever since the sui-tang period, huangpu port had been the exterior anchorage of guangzhou port supplying berth for ships going in or out of guangzhou.

couper dock is in the northwest of changzhou island in huangpu, which is now inside huangpu shipyard. the dock was named after its boss, john couper. in 1845, couper was dispatched to china by the dockyard of great britain and took the charge of supervision of repairing a ship of his company in huangpu dockyard. renting some several docks and hiring some local people, he set up a dockyard of his own but it got destroyed in the second world war. his son converted his mud dockyard into stone dockyard with the indemnity gained from the war. people later called the dock couper dockyard.

in 1860s’, couper dock was the largest stone dockyard, the first one established by foreigners in china; at the same time, it marked the beginning of modern dockyard industry in china.

the dock was 167.64 metres long and 5.19 metres deep. at the entrance of the dock, the width is 24.38 metres. two floating gates divided the dock into two parts: inside dock and outside dock. it could supply repairing service for 5,000-ton ships. couper’s son sold the dock to yihe foreign firm financial group and won the entry into hongkong dockyard. after that, the end was called to couper dockyard.

the site of couper dock contributes greatly to the research of the birth of chinese industrial workers and to the study of the history of chinese dock industry.

[zoroastrians cemetery]
wusheng tower, seated on the top of basi mountain in changzhou island of huangpu, was cemetery of zoroastrian, one of the world’s oldest religions.

basi mountain is 38.9 high above the sea level. facing the pearl river, the cemetery contains more than ten adult graves. they are put into order according to the burial date, but laid in an uneven line leading to the east direction. the gravestones reveal the earliest was buried in 1847 and the latest was in 1852. about the graves, we can only see each of the granite-made coffins. on the outside of covers of the coffins are carved inscriptions. from the reminder, we can know about their names, religion, and age, date, and place of death.

the zoroastrians cemetery, covering an area about 1,000 square meters, was specially appointed by local officials in the qing dynasty for those zoroastrians who travelled to guangzhou and settled. by reasons above, it is identified as another important historical site of silk road on the sea.

there is a scenic place of interest off shore of the pearl river, in the east of panyu district in guangzhou. lotus mountain, famed as capital ornamental column, together with lotus city built in emperor kangxi’s reign, is listed as relic sites under protection of provincial and municipal level respectively. like the above relics, they both are of great importance in the history of silk road on the sea.

lotus tower, originally named wenchang tower, was built by juren, li weifeng etc., in panyu in the 40th year of wannian of the ming dynasty (1612), and was also called whetstone tower and lion tower, for on the mountain there were many hard stones which can be whetstones and on the east slope of the mountain was a naturally lion-like rock. it is a brick tower of the multi-storeyed pavilion type, plane octagon, 9 storeys from the appearance, 11 blind storeys of wooden floor inside, octagonal pinnacle, and about 50 meters high. standing lofty and firm at the mouth of the pearl river, it enjoys the title of “the ornamental column of the provincial capital”.

lotus city is located in the northeast corner of lianhua mountain. although called a city, it is actually an irregular-oval castle with an area of 10,000 square meters, built in the third year of kangxi in the qing dynasty (1664). the walls inside and outside were made of stones and 80-size bricks, with the height of 10 meters. stretching from humen to shizigang, the prefectural city safeguarded the mountain, so it was said. after recovering taiwan, zheng chenggong, based on it, attacked the southeast coast of the mainland, which worried the qing government greatly. thus the emperor issued an order to ban maritime trade and to build forts as military defensive area, with materials and hard labourers from the 18 maritime townships. today, we can still see on the wall the bricks of six or seven kind of sizes and various colours and might infer that the building materials were once those of temples and private houses nearby.

lin zexu, the imperial envoy and the governor-general of guangzhou and guangxi, once took lotus city as the 2nd line of defence against the british invaders, which justified the importance of the position of it.

the mouth of pearl river lies there. lotus city and lotus tower on lianhua mountain, standing lofty and firm for long, have witnessed the prosperous history of the silk road on the sea.      

[guangzhou in the qing dynasty: the only one trading port]

guangzhou, as a big port, has been prospering since the han and tang dynasties, which is a rare event throughout the world.

since the han, tang, song, yuan and ming dynasties, silk road on the sea has been developing, its scale being larger and larger, its routes being more and more, and longer and longer, which has established guangzhou as a 2,000-year-long prospering port.

up to the 23rd year of kangxi of the qing dynasty (1684), the qing government officially opened the maritime places of the four provinces:  guangdong, fujian, zhejiang and jiangsu as trading ports, and set up in guangzhou, zhangzhou, ningbo and yutaishan four customs in charge of foreign trade. actually, holland was the first to be officially permitted to trade with guangzhou, and then britain, france, denmark and sweden followed suit and set up companies. british ships were the most among those trading ones, and britain had the largest volume of trade. that was so called “four trading ports—customs”.

in the 23rd year of qianlong of the qing dynasty (1757), emperor qianlong issued an edict to close the ports in ningbo, zhangzhou, and yuantaishan, and to keep the port of guangzhou only, which was called “one trading port period”.

the one-port trading lasted for 83 years. during the period, the import and export in guangzhou greatly increased, with the revenue from more than 13,000,000 liang of silver in 1792 to over 55,000,000 in 1837. during 45 years, the trade volume of britain with guangzhou increased by 80% or so, while that of america increased by nearly three times.

why the government decided to practise the policy of only one port trading is mainly due to the contradiction between the trade expansion of british east indian company and the exclusion policy of the qing government, and due to the worrying about the ethnic conflicts and about the international situations.

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