Guangzhouwan

Chinese
t=廣州灣(租借地)
p=Guǎngzhōuwān (Zūjièdì)
y=Gwóngjāuwāan (Jōujēdeih)
j=Gwong² zau¹ waan¹ (zou¹ ze¹ dei⁶)
w=Kwang³ chou¹ wan¹ (tsu¹ chieh⁴ ti⁴)
title=Kwang-Chou-Wan (Leased Territory)
lang1=French
lang1_content=(Territoire de) Kouang-Tchéou-Wan

Kwang-Chou-Wan (also spelt Guangzhouwan or Kwangchowan) was a small enclave on the south coast of China ceded by Qing China to France as a leased territory. [Gale 1970: 201] The territory did not experience the rapid growth in population that other parts of coastal China experienced, only rising from 189,000 in 1911 [EB 1911: Kwangchow Bay] to 209,000 in 1935. [Priestly 1967: 441] Industries included shipping and coal mining. The colony was invaded and taken over by Japan in February 1943, taken back by France in 1945, and finally returned to China in 1946, [Olson 1991: 349-350] at which point its original name of Zhanjiang was restored.Fact|date=February 2007

Geography

The leased territory was situated in Guangdong Province (Kwangtung Province) on the east side of the Leizhou Peninsula, north of Hainan, around a bay then called Kwang-Chou-Wan (Kwangchow Bay), now called Zhanjiang Gang (Zhanjiang Harbor). The bay forms the estuary of the Maxie River (Maxie He). The Maxie is navigable as far as 19 km (12 mi.) inland even by large warships. The territory ceded to France included the islands lying in the bay, which enclosed an area 29 km long by 10 km wide and a minimum water depth of 10 metres. The islands were recognized at the time as an admirable natural defense. The limits of the concession inland were fixed in November 1899; on the left bank of the Maxie, France gained from Gaozhou prefecture (Kow Chow Fu) a strip of territory 18 km by 10 km, and on the right bank a strip 24 km by 18 km from Leizhou prefecture (Lei Chow Fu). [EB 1911: Kwangchow Bay] The total land area of the colony was 842 km². [Priestly 1967: 441] The town of Zhanjiang was named "Fort Bayard" by the French and developed as a port.

History

Annexation and early development

Kwang-Chou-Wan was annexed by France on 27 May 1898 as "Territoire de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan", to counter the growing commercial power of British Hong Kong and Portuguese Macau. Their colony was described as "commercially unimportant but strategically located"; most of France's energies went into their administration of French Indochina, and their main concern in China was the protection of Catholic missionaries, rather than the promotion of trade. [Gale 1970: 201] Following the annexation, a 99 year lease to France was formally conceded by imperial China in 1900; Kwang-Chou-Wan was effectively placed under the authority of the French Resident superior in Tonkin (itself under the Governor general of French Indochina, also in Hanoi); the French Resident was represented locally by Administrators. [Olson 1991: 349] In addition to the territory acquired, France was given the right to connect the bay by railway with the city and harbour situated on the west side of the peninsula; however, when they attempted to take possession of the land to build the railway, forces of the provincial government offered armed resistance. As a result, France demanded and obtained exclusive mining rights in the three adjoining prefectures. The population in 1911 was recorded as 189,000. [EB 1911: Kwangchow Bay] The return of the colony to China was promised at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922, but this plan was in fact never realised. [Escarra 1929: 9]

By 1931, the population of Kwang-Chou-Wan had reached 206,000, giving the colony a population density of 245 persons per km²; virtually all were Chinese, and only 266 French people and four other Europeans were recorded as living there. [Priestly 1967: 441] Industries included shipping and coal mining. [Olson 1991: 349] The port was also popular with smugglers; prior to the 1928 cancellation of the American ban on export of commercial airplanes, Kuang-Chou-Wan was also used as a stop for Cantonese smugglers transporting military aircraft purchased in Manila to China, [Xu 2001: 21] and US records mention at least one drug smuggler who picked up opium and Chinese emigrants to be smuggled into the United States from there. [Anslinger 1953: [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/people/anslinger/traffic/chapter5.htm 141] ]

World War II

After the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany in 1940, the Republic of China recognised the London-exiled Free French government as Guangzhouwan's sovereign rulers and established diplomatic relations with them; from June 1940 until February 1943, the colony remained under the administration of Free France. [Olson 1991: 349-350] During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Guangzhouwan was often used as a stop on an escape route for civilians fleeing Hong Kong and trying to make their way to Free China; Patrick Yu, a prominent trial lawyer, recalled in his memoirs how a Japanese civilian in Hong Kong helped him to escape in this way. [Yu 2000: 38] However, the escape route would not remain open for long; in collaboration with German-controlled Vichy France, which relinquished the concession to the Japanese-sponsored Chinese National Government (another claimant to the succession of the former Chinese empire), the Imperial Japanese Army would invade and occupy the area in February 1943. [Olson 1991: 349-350]

Just prior to the Japanese surrender which ended World War II, the National Revolutionary Army, having recaptured Liuzhou, Guilin, and Taizhou, as well as Lashio and Mandalay in Burma, was planning to launch a large-scale assault on Guangzhouwan; however, due to the end of the war, the assault never materialised. [Handel 1990: 242] The French lease over Guangzhouwan would soon be terminated regardless, under an agreement concluded on February 28, 1946. In exchange for a withdrawal of Chinese forces from northern Vietnam, the French not only returned Guangzhouwan to the Nationalist government, but also gave up extraterritorial rights in Shanghai, Hankou, and Guangzhou, sold the Yunnan Rail Line to China, and agreed to provide special treatment for ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and Chinese goods exported to Vietnam. [Luong 1992: 141-142, 242] After the handover, the Zhanjiang City Government was formally established to administer the city.Fact|date=February 2007

French cultural and economic influence

A French school, "École Franco-Chinoise de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan", as well as a branch of "Banque de l'Indochine", were set up in Fort Bayard. [Le Papier Colonial] In addition, a Catholic church constructed during the colonial period is still preserved today. [Li 2001]

ee also

* Zhanjiang
* Sino-Vietnamese Railway

Notes

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* Includes images of letters sent to and from the territory.
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External links

* [http://tw.page.bid.yahoo.com/tw/auction/1137423860 Postage stamps of French Indochina, overstamped with "Kouang Tcheou"]
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/China_Foreign_colonies.html#Kwangchowan WorldStatesmen- China]
* [http://www.chikan.gov.cn/ckwf/cksh.htm Historic pictures of Fort Bayard ]