Pazhou

Traders from the "Southern Sea", including Indians, Arabians, and most Europeans, were required to keep their ships at Pazhou while smaller craft ferried goods to and from the Thirteen Factories area of Guangzhou's western suburbs.

Since the Thirteen Factories—the ghetto assigned to foreign traders in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries—was located in Guangzhou's western suburbs, the trip between the anchorage and the wharves at Jack-ass Point was about 16 miles (26 km).

[6] Before modern dredging, the silt carried by the Pearl River made it shallow and unpredictable as far south as Macao, with large sand banks and swift currents impeding navigation from the Humen Strait on.

The Baiyue peoples had settlements around Guangzhou since the Neolithic era, although the Chinese date the city to the foundation of Panyu by soldiers under Zhao Tuo during the Qin conquest.

Their trade was based out of Macao, but after the general sea bans were lifted in 1684[15] Pazhou (as "Whampoa") became an important anchorage as the great draft of the East Indiamen turned it into Guangzhou's deep-water port.

[6][16] Early traders were obliged to follow the monsoon winds, arriving between June and September, conducting their business, and then departing between November and February.

[16] As an added layer of defense and revenue, city officials continued to enforce anchorage at Pazhou even when smaller private craft began to trade in increasing numbers following the mid-18th discovery of the Philippine route allowed them to come and go without waiting months for the monsoon winds.

[20] Getting the ship from the Human Strait to Pazhou usually required traveling only by day[9] and assistance from a local pilot,[8] although English merchants occasionally showed off by making the trip unaided.

The sheds, made of bamboo poles and woven mats and known as "bankshalls",[n 5] were usually rented from local officials,[23] though the French and Swedes[n 6] received permission to build their own on Xiaoguwei.

[21] They also served as a workshop for careful repairs[23] or living quarters for the ships' supercargos, but most of them preferred to be left at Macao or ferried to the Thirteen Factories at Guangzhou.

[24] Common trips were to the Fanee Gardens and Hoi Tong Monastery on Henan[25] and to the shopping streets of the Thirteen Factories, particularly Hog Lane.

Officers chaperoned shore leaves but sometimes required help from local authorities, as in 1761 when the Pazhou mandarins closed down a Dutch punsch tent set up on Xiaoguwei at the request of Puankhequa, then the fiador of the Swedish East India Company.