View of the Anchorage at Huangpu (Whampoa)

Huangpu (Whampoa) was located downriver of Guangzhou (Canton). Here, ships anchored, Chinese tax assessors came aboard to survey the cargo, and gifts were exchanged. Cargo was then offloaded to smaller sampans, which traveled to the national warehouses or hongs at Guangzhou, twelve miles away. While most of a ship’s sailors would remain at Huangpu, its captain, supercargo, and senior crew traveled on to Guangzhou. A steam ship can be seen in the right middle ground of this painting, which dates the painting to after 1839 and forecasts the changes that would occur to international shipping in the latter half of the nineteenth century.