This is a relatively early example of the finely detailed oil paintings on canvas which clearly fulfilled the role as mementoes of a businessman's trip to Asia, that the early photographs by such Asian pioneers as Felix Beato were to do three decades later. This particular view is interesting in showing the relatively unorganised foreground in front of the French, American, English and Dutch hongs in the mid-1830's; it is amusing to note that the English one is the only Factory to have a fully mature and high-fenced garden over which residents could gaze from their large and shady first-floor verandahs. After the great fire of 1840, the waterfront area became much more built-up, with a smaller Protestant church set at the centre of a large formal garden, partially concealing the lower storeys of the factories behind it; this was to last until the next great fire destroyed the hongs and the church in 1856.