Fuzhou: Pagoda Anchorage

Although Fuzhou (on the Min River) was one of the Treaty Ports designated by the Treaty of Nanjing (1842), the city itself could not be reached by Western ships, which anchored downstream at Mawei, in the channel known as "Pagoda Anchorage". This painting shows the pagoda encircled by Western offices and godowns, with British and American ships offshore. The pagoda still stands - although no longer n an island - as do some of the buildings from the 1860s.

In the 1860s, Pagoda Anchorage became the starting-point for the "tea races", in which tea-clippers competed to bring home their cargoes supplied from the Bohea tea-growing districts close by. They Brought tea not only to Britain but also to the United States and Australia.