View of the waterfront at Amoy (Xiamen) showing the European factories

Amoy, on the southeast coast of China, opposite Taiwan, was first visited by western traders in the 16th century. The East India Company traded here, on and off, from 1671. The city was taken by the British in the First Opium War in 1841 and subsequently became one of the five new treaty ports opened up by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. It became the main export centre for tea in the 19th century.

This view is taken from the island of Gulangsu (or Kulangsu), where the British community lived, and which became a point of entry into China for Protestant missionaries.