Page 69 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

55.
14
serviced the foreign merchantmen. Constant bustling activity

characterized the entire scene at Whampoa. All kinds of boats

surrounded the foreign vessels. Chinese lighters loading and

unloading cargo, Mandarin boats bringing officials to inspect

arriving and departing vessels, Chinese house-boats hawking

food and souvenirs all crowded the anchorage. Such a conges­

tion of river traffic clogged the Pearl River the whole ten

miles between Whampoa and Canton. Travelers to Canton in this

period were repeatedly amazed at the river activity of the

Chinese, a sight "without parallel in any other country." Boats

of every description numbering thousands populated the river.

The total amount of Chinese esconced on these boats virtually

stupified the Americans, who rarely had contemplated much less
15
witnessed such a conglomeraoon of sights and sounds.

Most astounding to Americans was the multitude of

people who lived in boats on the river. Many of these Chinese

worked on shore, but they lived their entire life in a river­

boat. They had been born here and here they would die, leaving

the boat to another generation. These people were members of

the lowest class of Chinese society. No Chinese on shore

would ever consider marrying a river person. Before the reign

of the Ch'ien-Lung Emperor, who "naturalized" them, these

14
Fitch Taylor, A Voyage around the World (New Haven, 1855),
p. 134, and E.C. Wines, A Peep at China in Mr. Dunn's
Collection, with Miscellaneous Notices Relating to the Insti­
tutions and Customs of the Chinese and our Commercial Inter-
course with Them (Philadelphia, 1839), p. 25.
15
Tiffany, The Canton Chinese, p. 22.