From the ports of New York and St. Petersburg to London and Barcelona, this fun and informative book offers a unique way of looking at and learning about the busiest ports of the world. Travel to the world's ports and you'll learn much about a country's people, culture, and industry. Ports are thriving hubs of activity, filled with an endless variety of boats, cargo, and workers. In colorful spreads, readers are given insights into each port city, from flora to fauna and from tropical climates to polar regions.

This comprehensive guide to key cities of China and Japan was published in Hong Kong and London in 1867.

Paul A. Van Dyke’s new book, Whampoa and the Canton Trade: Life and Death in a Chinese Port, 1700–1842, authoritatively corrects misconceptions about how the Qing government treated foreigners when it controlled all trade in the Guangzhou port. Van Dyke reappraises the role of Whampoa in the system—a port twenty kilometres away from Guangzhou—and reassesses the government’s attitude towards foreigners, which was much more accommodating than previous research suggested. In fact, Van Dyke shows that foreigners were not bound by local laws and were given freedom of movement around Whampoa and Canton to the extent that they were treated with leniency even when found in off-limit places. Whampoa and the Canton Trade recounts the lives of seamen who travelled half-way around the globe at great risk and lived through a historic period that would become the framework for subsequent encounters between China and the rest of the world. Were it not for the exchanges between the major powers and the Qing empire, the world—as we know it—would be a rather different place. Hence, Van Dyke’s command of data mining shows that Whampoa was a key pillar in the Canton System and, thus, in the making of the modern world economy. ‘Paul Van Dyke has transformed our understanding of the Canton trade. In this book, he brings his enormous knowledge of the primary sources to this study of Whampoa, the anchorage on the Pearl River used by all foreign ships when that trade was confined to the port of Canton, presenting “a view of the trade from the common seaman’s perspective.”’ —Evelyn S. Rawski, University of Pittsburgh ‘Paul A. Van Dyke wonderfully brings to life the drudgery and danger faced by the diverse men who worked the ships of the Canton trade. He skilfully fashions vivid images of the texture of their lives from danger to boredom, from illnesses and accidents to drinking and whoring.’ —R. Bin Wong, UCLA

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Hong Kong's one great physical asset is its port. Throughout the one hundred and thirty years of the Colony's history its economy has depended to an important degree on this asset. In this book Dr T. N. Chiu describes and explains the pattern of port development in Hong Kong, where he sees the present structure of port activities as the product of a long period of economic, demographic and political developments. One of the most persistent themes is that in the laissez-faire economic environment that has prevailed in the Colony, port development is due less to internal demand than to external stimulant, which keeps changing the port's relative locational value. Development since the industrialization of the 1950S represents the culminating stage in the struggle to stay high in the emerging hierarchy of ports. The author gives a balanced estimate of what has been accomplished and evaluates the planning of specialized port development in the context of the recent technological revolution in port activities. Hong Kong's economy has in common with the trend in most developing economies a firm orientation towards overseas markets, but the more or less unique circumstance in the Colony make this book particularly welcome. It will be of interest to geographers, to all concerned with the ways in which a developing economy adjusts to changing conditions, and to those with a particular interest in the phenomenal development of Hong Kong.