Geographic Connections

Gulangyu, Dadan Island, Erdan Island, Qingyu, Wuyu, Shuixian Palace, Zengcuo’an, Seafront Bund (Haihoutan), Peace Wharf (Tai-koo Wharf), Dongdu Port, Gaoqi, Liuwudian, Jimei, Songyu, Baishitou, Houyu, Jiulong River.

Introduction: Defense and Openness at the Gateway to Fujian

In the grand narrative of digital local chronicles, the history of Xiamen Port is an epic of transformation from a “naval fortress” to a “treaty port.”

In 1394, due to pirate disturbances, the Ming court built Xiamen City and established the Zhongzuo Thousand-Household Office. At this time, Xiamen Port first entered the historical stage with the status of a military port.

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, with the budding of the commodity economy, Zhangzhou’s Yuegang emerged as a smuggling center. Xiamen Port, with its natural deep-water and windproof conditions, became the outer gateway to Yuegang. In the mid-16th century, Portuguese ships first arrived at the Wuyu waters near Xiamen, breaking the isolationist rural economy and starting a centuries-long history of foreign trade for the port.

Core Archive Interpretation I: Foreign Monopoly and the Dark Files of ‘Pigsty Wharves’

Flipping through the Xiamen Port Chronicles and Xiamen Transportation Chronicles, the records of the mid-19th century are filled with the weight of semi-colonialism.

Archives state that after the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, Xiamen was designated as one of the “Five Treaty Ports”. This was followed by the loss of sovereignty and systematic plunder.

  • A Humiliating Labor History: In 1852, the British firm Tait & Co. built the “Pigsty Wharf” on Gulangyu for transporting indentured laborers. According to historical records, between 1847 and 1853, 11,811 “coolies” were shipped out from Xiamen, making this wharf a silent witness to the tragic fate of modern Chinese labor.
  • Monopoly of Shipping and Berths: In the late 19th century, British shipping lines like Butterfield & Swire and Douglas Lapraik controlled the Xiamen-Taiwan routes for a long time. In 1933, the British rebuilt the Tai-koo Wharf (now Peace Wharf) on Tongwen Road, which had the most advanced 3,000-ton berthing capacity at the time. During this period, although trade volume accounted for over 64% of the provincial total, core rights were entirely in foreign hands.

Core Archive Interpretation II: From a ‘Dead Port’ to an SEZ Quantum Leap

In the mid-1930s, Xiamen Port experienced its modern peak, with over 1,000 ship entries and exits in 1936. However, the subsequent Japanese occupation and Civil War nearly paralyzed the port, leading newspapers to decry it as a “Dead Port” after the war.

In the early days after 1949, due to the naval blockade by Kuomintang forces in Kinmen, the port was forced into a precarious state where maritime transport relied on small motorized junks sailing under the cover of night. The real turning point came with the establishment of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in 1980:

  • Infrastructure Transformation: In 1984, the first phase of the Dongdu New Port was completed, with two 50,000-ton and two 10,000-ton berths officially put into operation, and railways connected directly to the port area. This scale marked a qualitative leap from the old pier system to a modern comprehensive port.
  • Economic Efficiency Leap: According to archival data, by 1995, the port’s annual throughput exceeded 13 million tons, equivalent to the total throughput of the first 30 years after 1949. That same year, the state-owned enterprises under the Xiamen Port Authority achieved a profit of 105 million RMB, officially joining the ranks of national large-scale Type-I ports and the most efficient ports in the country.

Modern Enlightenment: The Resilience of Port Sovereignty

Through this deep deconstruction of digital archival records, we see the strategic significance of ports for a city and a nation:

  1. Port Sovereignty is a Prerequisite for Development: From the “Foreign Customs” controlled by foreign tax commissioners to modern self-operated ports, Xiamen’s history proves that only by controlling shipping administration and pilotage rights can a port truly serve the local economy.
  2. Foresighted Infrastructure Layout: The construction of the Dongdu Port Area not only solved siltation issues but also achieved a transformation from a mere “loading port” to a “free trade window” through the development of bonded warehouses and international transit functions.
  3. Maritime Link between Two Shores: Since the Qing Dynasty, Xiamen has been the “main port for crossing to Taiwan.” This natural bloodline continues to play an irreplaceable role as a hub in modern “Three Links”.

These archives are more than just dry numbers; they are the intelligence station and witnesses of Xiamen rising from a naval outpost, through the pain of forced opening, to its emergence as a global shipping node.