The Age of Discovery, from the 15th to 17th century, created unprecedented opportunities for people of different cultures to interact. Curiosity, wealth, and domination were the main reasons people risked their lives to explore uncharted waters and territories. European exploration would not have been successful without proper seagoing vessels. Before the 15th century, European sailing …
In 1784, the first merchant ship of the newly established United States of America – Empress of China – set sail from New York to Canton (Guangzhou) of China, the only Chinese port opened for foreign trade at the time. Following the conclusion of the First Opium War (1839-1842), China was forced to open more …
Located at the Pearl River (珠江) (Cantonese: zyu1 gong1, Mandarin: zhujiang) in south China, Canton 廣州 (currently romanized as Guangzhou) has been referred to by different names – 穗 ‘rice’ (Cantonese: seoi6, Mandarin: sui), (五)羊城) ‘City of (the Five) Rams’ (Cantonese: ng5 joeng4 sing4, Mandarin: wu yang cheng) and 花城 ‘City of Flowers’ (Cantonese: faa1 …
For most of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the early period of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), China adopted a series of policies collectively referred to as sea ban (haijin 海禁) which essentially disconnected itself from the maritime world. Chinese people were prohibited from going to sea and privately trading goods with foreign countries. However, such …
Although the Ming dynasty of China (1368–1644) shut the door on establishing foreign relations in the 16th century, informal exchanges, particularly private trade, between the Portuguese and Chinese were common. Before being granted Macau as their settlement, Portuguese traders had to use outlying islands off coastal South China as their trading bases. One such base …
It is often acknowledged that Jorge Álvares was the first Portuguese to have landed in China. In 1513, his ships arrived in a place known as Tamão, whose exact location is still controversial. The Portuguese met more obstacles in establishing regular trade relations with China than in India and Southeast Asia due to the heavy …
The featured image is the receipt from a shop in Penang for an order of rock sugar. Rock sugar 冰糖 (Cantonese: bing1 tong4) is a kind of crystalized sugar extracted from sugar cane. It is less sweet than granulated white sugar, but it is often used in Chinese dishes and desserts. In Chinese, there is …
When Granville Sharp (1824–1899) arrived in India, he joined the Commercial Bank of India. On 2 November 1858, he married Matilda Lincolne Sharp (1829–1893) in Bombay, India. Not long after their wedding, the Sharps arrived in Hong Kong on 25 December 1858. After working for a short time in the Hong Kong office, Sharp left …
After the landing of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in Calicut (now Kozhikode), India in 1498 and upon his return to Lisbon with news of future profits of the spice trade in the subcontinent, Portugal quickly organized more expeditions to conquer India before its rival Spain. In order to secure a permanent presence in …
The early 20th century was the golden era of postcards. Not only did travelers buy postcards as souvenirs, but strangers also exchanged postcards in order to know more about other cultures. For example, the featured image above was a postcard sent from the then British Cape Colony to a Portuguese living in Hong Kong in …