Wuchou

After a two-day boat trip through the most beautiful scenery in all China, I finally reached Wuchou on the West River. As my boat approached the dock, the river was crowded with boats filled with soldiers and military equipment. It looked as if the entire National Protection Army was heading for Chaoch'ing via Wuchou. By this time the Fourth Division of the Yunnan Army had already reached Wuchou and had set up a reception station for new recruits near the piers.

1979, Te-kong Tong, Li Tsung-jen, “A Young Officer in the National Protection Army”, in The Memoirs of Li Tsung-jen (Studies of the East Asian Institute of Columbia University), Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 33

Wuchou was, after all, the gateway to China’s southwestern provinces of Kuanghsi, Kueichou, and Yunnan, and the entrepôt through which all river-borne trade between Southwest China and Kuangchou had to pass. Although Emperor Shun’s attempt to gain control of that gateway had been unsuccessful, his descendents^([sic – meaning descendants]) eventually succeeded in establishing a town there during the T’ang dynasty, long before Marco Polo’s time. The town thrived on trade, and in 1897, as a result of the Burma Convention, Wuchou became one of China’s treaty ports and was opened to foreign traders, who came to buy indigo and furs.

梧州

2015, Bill Porter, “Wuchou [梧州]”, in South of the Clouds: Travels in Southwest China, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 8