VI. The Foreign Quarter of Guangzhou: The Habitation of Foreigners in the Tang and Song Dynasties

In the Tang dynasty,Fang Qianli mentioned in the book Miscellaneous Jottings Far from Home the exotic scene in the Foreign Quarter of Guangzhou:"The wealthy served their meals with honey, borneol and musk and many other expensive overseas goods. Some food did not seem tasty to the outsiders, yet those who liked it thought it was delicious and enjoyed it."Miscellaneous Jottings Far from Home was written shortly before 835, and it's clear that the Foreign Quarter of Guangzhou had been already become quite famous.

In Pingzhou Table Talks, Zhu Yu wrote about his father's experience in Guangzhou as the local magistrate in the years of Shaosheng of the Song dynasty (1094-1097). For instance, the administrators of the Foreign Quarter were called"Fan officers" and were assigned to foreigners in the Foreign Quarter. As they were officially appointed to supervise the neighborhood, they wore the same clothes as Chinese. The regulation of the Foreign Quarter employed a combination of foreign and Chinese supervision; if foreigners committed a crime, they were sent to the Guangzhou government for examination. If the crime was minor, they were punished by the neighborhood supervisors; if they committed serious crimes that required being beaten with rods, the local government itself would enforce the punishment. As for conflicts among foreigners, if both sides were from the same country, the law of that country would be applied, otherwise they would be judged by the law of China.

The life of the Foreign Quarter was colorful and exotic; immigrants in the Foreign Quarter were usually seen wearing clothes of their own nationalities, but eating Chinese food. There was also a game played in the Foreign Quarter, similar to Chinese chess yet without the chariot and the steed. Players used pieces of ivory, rhinoceros horn, agilawood or musk, followed specific rules and competed with each other.

The location of the Foreign Quarter in the Tang dynasty was centered around Guangta Street, to the north of Dade Road, east of Renmin Road, south of Zhongshan Road, and west of Jiefang Road. In the middle of the Northern Song dynasty, the western commercial and residential area of Guangzhou was blown up by Nongzhigao's riots. The property of many Chinese and foreign businessmen and residents was damaged or lost, and their lives were under threat. At that time the magistrate of Guangzhou, Cheng Shimeng reported it to the court for permission to build the city wall and appointed officials to design the wall and draw the blueprints; special officials were commanded by Emperor Shenzong of the Song dynasty to assist the construction of the city with technology and materials then unavailable in Lingnan. The construction took ten months and the wall turned out twelve li's long. The extended wall in the western city equalled to the total length of the original sub-city of Guangzhou and of the eastern city. The Foreign Quarter was enlarged and annexed into the city.

It is argued whether foreigners were allowed to live in the cities of ancient China; however, this problem didn't exist in Guangzhou in the Song dynasty. It is unquestionable that the Foreign Quarter was in the city of Guangzhou.