[VOL II] A STREET IN CANTON

A STREET IN CANTON

Cover Image: A Sreet in Canton / GuangZhou GuangDong China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by W.H.Capone – ALAMY Image ID:2X55MX9

*Guangzhou is the capital of China’s Guangdong province and one of the largest cities in southern China. It is located in the Pearl River Delta region and boasts a rich history and cultural heritage, as well as a thriving business and trade scene. Guangzhou holds a significant economic position in southern China and is a vibrant modern metropolis with diverse culinary options, cultural attractions, and business opportunities.

“Hence is it that a city street
Can deepest thought impart;
For all its people, high and low,
Are kindred to my heart.”

MARY HOWITT.

OLD Canton presents a specimen of street-life and street-habits in China, which may be received as a general representation of city scenes. And, in analyzing the practices and manners of trades-people and dealers of all descriptions, and describing what travelers signalize as peculiarities, a coincidence with European, even with antiquated London customs, much more striking than is generally imagined, will present itself. From its very ancient foundation, and the long establishment of a productive commerce here, the population have outgrown the mural limits of the city, and a suburb of great extent has been added. The accompanying illustration, however, does not represent either the suburban or the European quarter, but strictly and truly a street of active business in the very heart of the ancient Chinese city of Quang-choo-foo. The extent of the original walls is only six miles, but the population of city and suburbs, together with the amphibious beings that dwell on board the junks on the Pearl river, is estimated at one million of souls.

Although the area within the walls is so limited in extent, from the very contracted breadth of the avenues, as well as from the economy exercised in apportioning ground for building, both streets and houses are surprisingly numerous. This arrangement necessarily precludes the general employment of wheel-carriages; and the streets of Canton resemble the flagged courts and passages, that afford so much convenience to the foot-passenger in London, and which operate so beneficially in diminishing the concourse in the great thoroughfares. They may also be not inaptly compared to the arcades of Paris, in all respects save the glazed canopies that shelter them. Every avenue is floored with spacious granite flags; so that were wheel-carriages in fashion, or rather, could they obtain admission, they would roll along as if a tram-way bore them. This, however, is impracticable in most instances, each street being contracted, at its extremities, to the breadth of a mere doorway; here a strong wooden valve, or iron gate, is hung, and here also is a guard-house, in which the night-watch is stationed. To these the care of the separate, single streets, is entrusted, to protect them against thieves, to give the alarm and assist in the event of fire, and to preserve the peace amongst the occupants themselves. But this restriction upon liberty is not a peculiarity; it has been long established in the cities and large towns on the continent of Europe, where the Jews were confined to a particular quarter, and gates erected at the end of every street so appropriated. These were always locked at night, and guarded by the police of the place. At Nagasaki in the island of Japan, the Dutch traders, should they wish to sleep ashore, are required to submit to a similar description of nightly imprisonment and surveillance.

Deficiency of scientific knowledge in architecture, especially in the formation and support of the roof, has impeded the efforts of builders in China, so that the houses seldom rise higher than two stories; and even this elevation is chiefly attained by the aid of wooden frame-work, such as was once imported into this country from Holland, and such as may yet be seen in Chester and other ancient cities of Great Britain. The ceilings of the richer classes are frequently of brick—of the less prosperous, of brick and wood, or of the latter only—but, of the poorest class, of unbaked clay or mud. Kien-lung observed, on looking over a portfolio of English architectural views, that “ground must be very scarce in our country, since we were under the necessity of building such high houses.”

An old print of Lombard-street, London, in the time of Sir Thomas Gresham, will give a tolerably correct idea of the streets of Canton at the present day. Doors and windows stand open, protected from the weather by projecting eaves, and falling blinds, and fixed verandas. The wares are all exposed for sale with such confidence in public honesty, that the passenger experiences more familiarity and freedom from restraint in the trading streets of Canton, than inside the shops of London or of Paris. Large umbrellas, the handle and the hood of bamboo, are spread wherever space permits, and a profitable trade is not unfrequently conducted beneath their grateful shelter. Lanterns are suspended over every door and window at nightfall; and, indeed, during the idle day, this Chinese emblem is seldom withdrawn. Either over the shop-window, or beside the door, a sign is usually placed, emblematic of the proprietor’s calling, or in some way connected with the commercial history of the house. This was once a prevailing custom in London; the grasshopper was Sir Thomas Gresham’s sign; and within the last century, the George and Dragon, and the Bible and Crown, have been removed, and succeeded by embellishments more classical or architectural. A further similarity may be traced between the streets of our ancient cities and those of China, in the proverbs inscribed over the shop-doors, or on some conspicuous part of the ware-room within. Our cock-shops of old were distinguished by the useful maxim above the entrance, of “Waste not—want not.” A wooden house, yet perfect in Chester, exhibits on its sign-board, “God’s providence is our inheritance;” and, sentences from the sacred Scriptures adorned the walls of many an oak-parlour in England, in feudal times. Attached to ancient usages, the Celestials tenaciously adhere to the practice of inscribing their doors, and cornices, and panels, with extracts from the writings of Confucius, all of the admonitory, or didactic kind—while our shopkeepers have retained but three of their proverbs of traffic—“No second price asked”—“No credit given”—“No goods taken back.”

Chinese maxims of business are innumerable, although some are evidently more popular than others. Amongst the most favourite are, “Whoever would succeed, must employ the morning”—“Former customers have inspired caution: no credit given”—“Gossiping and long sitting injure business”—“Trade circling like a wheel”—“Goods genuine: prices moderate”—“A small stream always flowing.” A tablet also is sometimes suspended at the door, inscribed “No admission for bonzes or beggars.”

Mandarins who condescend to visit the principal thoroughfares, to make purchases for domestic use, are conveyed in their sedan-chairs; unaccompanied, however, by such a train of satellites as generally attends them on occasions of ceremony, the narrowness of the ways rendering such a procession highly inconvenient.

It has been shown, that however widely the dress, language, laws, and religion ofthe Chinese may differ from those of Europe, the similarity, almost the identity, of their social habits is particularly striking. It is advanced also, as a peculiarity of Canton, that persons engaged in the same trade flock together, and occupy particular streets. This practice is still partially adopted in the large cities of Europe. Paternoster-row is a well-known illustration, and the practice was carried to a much greater extent in our markets for the sale of separate commodities. The names of the streets, odd-sounding enough, certainly, in the Chinese tongue, are by no means more absurd, or more unmeanin, than those in use amongst ourselves. Those most known to foreigners are Dragon street and Golden street. Now, we have very many Lion streets, so called from our own national emblem; and Golden square—street—and lane, all exist within our civic nomenclature. The appearance of a Chinese street is agreeable, cheerful, picturesque: the people are intent on that object which constitutes the chief pursuit of mankind in general—riches; and their devotion to the cause is so entire, that dedicatory tablets to Plutus are hung up in many of their shops. In the most densely peopled part of the city, the utmost precautions are taken to prevent the occurrence of fires, to give alarm when they do happen, and to extinguish them as expeditiously as possible. The watchman, at the closed door of every street, is supplied with a loud-toned bell, or a large gong, or a huge horn, which he employs to awake and alarm the inhabitants; and a species of observatory, of bamboo-poles, is erected above the roof of almost every house, from which danger may be descried, or the alarm effectually given, and by means of which escape from a painful death is often facilitated.