Colonial area remains long after wars

During a visit to South China's Guangdong province earlier this month to report on the relevance of the 19th century opium wars in modern China, I spent part of a morning in Shamian, where I saw mostly tourists, joggers, female "square dancers" and elderly people gather.

The area in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, was built as a Western concession in the 1860s after the ruling Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) lost for a second time in wars with Britain, which Chinese historians say were fought over colonial expansion in Asia and the Qing resistance to the opium trade by agents of the erstwhile British East India Company.

British, French and some other Western businesses had set up their factories in the Thirteen Hongs enclave on the banks of the Pearl River in Guangzhou during Qing times.