Guangdong

Pakhoi (Beihai)

A small seaport at the northeast of the Gulf of Tongking, opened to trade as a result of the Chefoo Convention of 1876. The first consulate premises were truly awful. A large site of about 20 acres at the rear of the small fishing town was bought in 1884 but only a small portion of it, that which became the consulate site, was thought likely to become suitable for buildings. A two-storey residence with offices and constable’s quarter with gaol, designed by Marshall, were completed here in 1887. About two acres were long-leased to the Church Missionary Society in 1887.

Never active nor promising, the post was closed in 1915. In 1924, the leased site was sold to the Church Missionary Society for HK$100, and all the rest to the Vicar Apostolic of Western Kwangtung and Hainan, one Revd. Monsieur Auguste Gauthier, for 25,000 Shanghai dollars.

Marshall’s drawing for residence, c.1885.

Marshall’s drawing for constable’s quarter with gaol behind, c.1885.

Front of constable’s quarter, 1887.

Consul’s residence, built 1887.

Siteplan, with consulate on the left, 1924.

Samshui (Sanshui)

Small town on the West river, about 100 miles by steamer from Canton. Post established in 1897 and consul lived in a houseboat until he bought a site in Hokow, Samshui’s riverside port and ‘induced a Chinaman to build’, as Boyce put it in 1899, some sort of a house on it. The Office of Works forced the sale of the unsuitable site and no other plans were made before the post was suspended in 1901, after a four year life.

Swatow (Shantou)

A port, five miles from the mouth of the Han river, between Amoy and Hong Kong, that served Chaochow/Chaozhou, the city designated as a treaty port in the Treaty of Tientsin 1858 but found too hostile for the establishment of a consulate. The first consul in 1860 initially settled on Double Island, five miles below Swatow. A 1½ acre compound on the Bund on the south bank of the river at Swatow, containing recently built two-storey residences, was bought in five lots from an enterprising United States vice-consul in 1863 and converted to accommodation for a consul, an assistant and consular offices. A constable’s quarter and a gaol were built elsewhere in 1865. The consul also occasionally made use of a leased yamen in town, at Chan-chow-fu. The consulate’s boat pier was rebuilt as a jetty in 1912. The buildings were damaged by a typhoon in 1923, [rebuilt?] the post was closed in 1951 and the property sold in 1964.