Zhanglin Ancient Port: Red-Head Boats and the Chaoshan Diaspora

Zhanglin Ancient Port sits in Dongli Town, Chenghai District, Shantou, on a bend of the old port river. The historic core covers about two square kilometres. During the Qing dynasty it grew from a coastal settlement into a busy port, and it remains tied to the red-head boats that carried traders and migrants out of Chaoshan. The lanes, docks, temples and ancestral halls here still read as a record of the region's overseas-Chinese history.

A Port on the Maritime Silk Road

Zhanglin is often described as one of the starting points of China's maritime Silk Road. An early twentieth-century world map published in Britain marked the port by name. Under the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors it ranked among Guangdong's larger ports and was a centre for the red-head boat trade. Local accounts say the first red-head boat to put to sea left from Zhanglin after the Qing court relaxed maritime restrictions in the Kangxi reign. Merchants and fishing boats from other coastal provinces passed through, and many emigrants began long journeys from here to Southeast Asia and beyond. The red-head boats were working vessels before they were a symbol: their history runs through the port's trade and through family histories across the sea.

The Monument and Historical Exhibition Hall

Behind the Zhanglin Ancient Port monument is the Zhanglin Ancient Port History Exhibition Hall, built in 2003. The ground floor holds display cases with more than 1,000 objects, over 300 photographs and documents, a red-head boat model and sculpted scenes. The upper floor is given over to painting and calligraphy exhibitions. Opening arrangements change, so check with official local sources before setting out.

Along the Old Port River

Yongding Tower

Walk the south bank of the old port river to Yongding Tower. The building links houses, a study and an ancestral hall, and it served as a rest stop for boat workers, a beacon tower and a warehouse. Standing where it does, by the water, it shows how the port worked as a waterfront rather than as a single monument.

Xinxing Street

Not far from Yongding Tower is the east gate of Xinxing Street, 187.3 metres long and built in the seventh year of the Jiaqing reign, which puts it past two centuries. Weather has faded the old shop buildings, but the outline of former warehouses and trading premises survives in the brickwork, tiles and columns. The street is short. What it offers is the density of the surviving fabric, and the sense of a commercial street that once served the port.

The Old Dock

Two centuries of change have ended the dock's working life, but traces remain. Mooring posts and the remains of the old dock are the physical evidence of the waterfront. They are modest relics, best seen as one stop on a walk rather than a sight in themselves.

Temples, Ancestral Halls and Local Ritual

From the west gate of Xinxing Street, turn right for Xingzhong Ancestral Hall, then carry on to Shanhai Xiongzhen Temple. Built in 1586, the fourteenth year of the Wanli reign, the temple is dedicated to the Three Mountain Kings. Its annual procession on the twentieth day of the first lunar month is a major local event, though the schedule is worth confirming locally. At the north-bank entrance to the old port river, a stone image of Haiye sits on a stone base. Haiye is a pig deity particular to Zhanglin, originally honoured at the Tianhou Temple inside the old town, which says something about how closely local worship is bound to the port's older streets.

Nanshengli and the Qin Mu Residence

Nanshengli is a compact lesson in Chaoshan architecture, more than 80 mu of it, with stone carving, wood carving, porcelain inlay, clay sculpture and calligraphy across the buildings. The layout is described as five lanes, three courtyards and one pond, and the hierarchy of lanes and open spaces is easy to follow on foot. Among the grand courtyard houses are local types known as silma lache and sidianjin. The core is Xiqing Hall, the Lan clan ancestral hall. Doorways inside and outside the hall carry poems, paintings, opera scenes, animals and plants, and the inner and outer courtyards are large by any local standard.

One small unit in Nanshengli is the former residence of the writer Qin Mu. The Nanshengli owner Lan Rongsheng is said to have sold a house to Qin Mu's father, Lin Yunsan, after gambling losses, and Qin Mu spent much of his childhood there. The residence now holds six exhibition rooms and a flower hall; the bedroom displays photographs, documents and personal objects connected with his life and his patriotic writing.

Visiting Zhanglin

The sites connect, so treat Zhanglin as a half-day walk: the monument and exhibition hall, the riverbank, Yongding Tower, Xinxing Street, the old dock, the temples, Nanshengli. Distances are short and the lanes reward a slow pace. Wear shoes for uneven stone and leave room for detours. Several sites are working places of worship or community buildings, so keep your voice down and follow local custom.

The red-head boats no longer sail from the old dock. The street plan, the mooring posts, the ancestral halls and the local deities keep that history in view.