Shàntóu History

History

As early as the 18th century, when today’s Shàntóu was just a fishing village, the East India Company had a station on an island outside the harbour. By the mid–19th century it had grown into an important trading port known to the outside world as Swatow.

The port was officially opened to foreign trade in 1860 under the Treaty of Tientsin, which ended the Second Opium War. By 1870 foreigners were living and trading in the town itself. A few of the old colonial buildings remain, but most are extremely dilapidated.