Being a historian means travelling a lot, although primarily in the dimension of time. By working long enough with a topic, place or person, a feeling of familiarity arises, one a feeling of having actually visited the places or met the persons arises, even though the only contact has been through images and text.
But there is still value to travlling in person and experiencing the places where the historical events took place.
After writing about business encounters of the merchants of the Oldenburg Monarchy and China for quite some time, I have long wanted to see the places where it all took place, namely Canton in Southern China as well as the surrounding Pearl River Delta.
This is the place on the image above, namely the factories rented by European merchants as a base for the trade of tea, porcelain, silk and much more. Canton, or Guangzhou as it is called today, was one of the most international places in the world in the period from around 1700 tilll the first Opium War around 1840.
In the late fall I finally had my chance! Following the meeting of the International Coucil of Maritime Museums 2015, which took place in Hong Kong, I took the train to Guangzhou in mainland China. Here my secondary supervisor Paul van Dyke was waiting along with another of his students and together we enjoyed two days of museums, historic sites and discussion.
After a long morning of travelling, it was a pleasure to be at the very place where the meetings of culture and business took place 2-300 years ago.
In the picture above I am at the Shishanhang Lu, which is the street behind the factories in the top photo. Judging from books and old maps, that street is still in its original location.
The Shisanhan Lu is perhaps the busiest place I have ever been. Everywhere people were carrying goods by hand or with little carts, seemingly going in all directions at once. I wonder if the street was as busy 2-300 years ago?
The area in front of the factories or hongs have now been transformed into a park, while the area of the buildings now houses a large pink high-rise with a stage in front.
The panoramic photo above is taken more or less at the same place as the painter of the top photo would have been located, perhaps a bit too close.
The white building above is the factory usually rented by the Danish Asiatic Company. Over time it was expanded and rebuilt, but the above appearance is from about the year 1800.
This is how the place looks today. The large pink building occupies all of the space, leaving little trace of what once was.
The river, which is visible on old painting, is now far behind us. Several hundred of meters of land have been claimed from the river the last two hundred years, so it requires a bit of imagination to understand the connection between the present place and the old paintings.
But having that imagination, it is easy to almost feel the merchants of old walking around as shadows of the past, doing their business and making money on the encounter between East and West!
Between Copenhagen & Canton 1730-1833 