[shisan hang road and thirteen hongs]

shisanhang road is now the name of one road in guangzhou, located in the north of guanghzou culture park. in the ming and qing dynasties, the whole area of covering the road and the park was the central place for foreign trade.

thirteen hongs were the predecessor of foreign firms, originally referring to the business firms for foreign trade only in the qing dynasty, which were so called because there were thirteen firms at first.

foreign merchants set up commercial firm, also called shisanhang foreign commercial firm, for accommodation, transaction of business affairs, and storage of goods. the buildings were mainly of two storeys and occidental architectural style.

there was also an important cause for setting up thirteen hongs: at that time, foreign merchants could not communicate directly with chinese merchants; thus, the brokers were needed to take charge of the foreign trade. and then thirteen hongs, the economic organization and form to monopolize foreign trade, came into being in guangzhou and firmly grasped the right of foreign trade in their merchants’ hands.

what were the features of the business in the thirteen hongs? during the ming and qing dynasties, the foreign trade in guangzhou was totally in the charge of the local authorities, and of the thirteen hongs. in the years of qianlong’s reign in the qing dynasty, the business of the hongs got expanded rapidly, with three divisions: foreign commercial firm dealing with foreign merchants; local commercial firm with tribute presenters and merchants in qiuluo state; fuchao commercial firm with merchants in chaozhou and fujian. the merchants of thirteen hongs mainly did the following business: selling on a commission basis the goods shipped by foreigners; paying tariff and various rents on other merchants’ behalf; buying all kinds of commodity for foreign countries; guaranteeing and supervising all commercial activities of foreign merchants; passing on the qing government’s decrees to foreign merchants and handling all negotiations.

the monopoly trade of thirteen hongs had been prospering for one and a half centuries to the 22nd year of daoguang of the qing dynasty (1842). during that period, guangzhou enjoyed the exceptional advantage of position and found itself in a golden time of high-speed developing. naturally, the thirteen hongs possessed immense wealth, in which pan qiguan, lu guanheng, wu bingjian and ye shanglin etc. as representatives, enjoyed such a reputation. tongwen firm, guangli firm,yihe firm and yicheng firm established respectively by them were very famous. in xiguan, guangzhou, now through the streets named after such foreign firms: tongwen road, yihe avenue, baoshun avenue (baoshun firm), puyuan avenue (puyuan firm), ren’an street (ren’an firm), people can still have some ideas of the once brilliant history of thirteen hongs.

in those years, inside and outside of thirteen hongs, masts stood in great number and colourful flags flew upward. but soon thirteen hongs went downhill. when opium war broke out in 1840, britain opened the closed gate of the qing government with their gunboats. the vanquished qing government was forced to sign sino-british treaty of nanjing, and the 80-year only one port trading of guangzhou and the monopoly privilege of thirteen hongs ended.

on the second opium war in 1856, indignant guangzhou people burned the commercial firms where foreign merchants lived, and thirteen hangs were burned to ashes in this big fire, with the 156-year history of foreign trading privileges ended.

of course, another important cause also contributed to the declining of thirteen hongs: british bourgeoisie, in order to revise trade deficit and to seek more profits, went so far as to dump opium to china in the thirteenth year of qianlong of the qing dynasty (1749), opium only occupied one eighth of british merchandise exported to china; by the end of qianlong’s reign, opium had consisted of half of british exported goods; during daoguang’s reign, the amount of input opium increased surprisingly so that the qing government had to issued an edict and appointed lin zexu to ban opium in guangdong.

[yue customs building]

yue customs building, an occidental architecture with a drum tower on its top, is one of the representatives of western neoclassical architecture in modern times of guangzhou, which is also known as the grand bell tower. when the bell on it rings, the sound is clear and melodious and can be heard in fangcun district, 5 kilometres away.

as mentioned above, during the whole century, the practice of 4foreign trading ports to the only one foreign trading port promoted the increase and development of guangzhou’s foreign trade.

the yue customs, established in the 24th year of kangxi of the qing dynasty (1685), together with the jiang customs and jin customs, was called three famous national customs. in 1913, the old building of yue customs was pulled down, and a new building, designed by an english architect, dick david, began to be built by huihua engineering corporation.

the yue customs building was completed in 1916, with four floors and facing the south, 31.85 meters high, with the building area of 4421sqare meters. above the fourth floor, a bell tower was built in the front of the building center, with a dome on its top. inside the building every room was spacious and bright, with a grate in each room, with flat-arch teak doors and windows, and with camphor wood floors. the corridors in each story are broad and wide, with colorful brick floor and beautiful ceramic wainscot. the lift was removed, but the granite steps remained intact very much.

now, the building still serves as the office building of guangzhou customs.

[shamian concession and occident ancient architectural complex]

when walking in guangzhou, or traveling by boat from the west bank for “the night sightseeing of guangzhou”, you can find unexpectedly that there is a piece of pure land in the noisy city. under the sequestered and dense trees, there are some alien buildings of occident ancient architecture style, which are the historical monument & cultural relics under state protection—shamian occident ancient architectural complex, which enjoys the reputation of the ninth beautiful view of guangzhou.

shamian was built between the qing dynasty and the early years of the republic of china, with the floor area of 330mu. shamian was originally part of quicksand in the central island of ancient pearl river and the place where fisher folks lived.

from the song dynasty to the qing dynasty, shamian had ever been the important port for foreign trade and the warehouse of thirteen hongs. during the opium war, it was an important place for defending the city. after the second opium war, british and american invaders took a fancy to the treasure place, in 1857. on the 3rd of september in 1861, a guangdong officer lao chongguang, on behalf of the qing government, contracted a lease with the powers. from then on, shamian became one of the earliest foreign concessions in china as well as the unique  “ foreign concession island ”. hereafter, another 19 countries established their own consulates in succession there and also founded some churches, foreign firms, post offices, telegram offices, shops, hospitals, hotels and dwelling houses. during that time, the residents there were almost the personnel of those consulates, banks and foreign firms, together with foreign tax collectors and some missionaries.

the major styles of buildings in shamian are neoclassical style, neo-baroque style, ticket porch style and different kinds of european styles. there are 150 buildings and 158 arbors altogether.

now here are some modern buildings, such as white swan hotel, victory hotel, shamian park, shamian tennis court, swimming pool. shamian is on the first list of the historical cultural relics under protection by guangzhou.

the river surrounded by the districts of shamian, fangcun and haizhu is called white goose pool. when the full moon nights come, a ripple of cool wind breezes, colorfully decorated lanterns twinkle, and some beautiful sound of singing can be appreciated from the surrounding of the buildings, which consist of a very sequestered and enjoyable view—“night moon on white goose pool”, one of the famous old eight sceneries of guangzhou.

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