The Western Factories at Canton

The view of the Western factories or Hongs sees the American and Dutch flags flying over their respective factories (the flags notifying that the nations are in residence). The Hongs have been rebuilt after the fire of November 1822. The central cleared area, not fenced in as it was before the fire, was variously known as Respondentia Walk, Factory Square and The Esplanade, and grew in size as land was reclaimed from the river. In the centre and on the water’s edge stands the central custom house, one of three on the creek at Canton. Little more than a bamboo shed at this period, it took on a more substantial form in the 1830s. The busy shoreline gives an indication of the extent of the traffic and commerce at Canton in the early nineteenth century, before the China trade was dispersed to the new treaty ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai in the mid-nineteenth century.