The Hongs

Dominating the view that we see on the bowl are coastal building blocks that are referred to as factories and also called Hongs, where European and Chinese merchants conducted business.[cf p.15] Perhaps many think of factories as buildings for manufacturing goods. However, the term Hong in its Cantonese sense means licensed firm, and could also refer to the buildings in which such licensed firms were located and that were owned by the Hong merchants.[ibid] From the late 1760s to the fire of November 1st, 1822, there were seventeen buildings in this district where foreigners were allowed to rent.