Beyond the Bund: Life in the Outports

Much has been written about the larger, more glamourous former treaty ports of China, particularly Shanghai. This chapter furthers our understanding of life in the smaller, more remote stations in which foreigners lived and worked. Nield has sourced a wide range of material, from consular and customs reports to novels and travellers’ accounts. The “outports”, as the smaller places were known, were generally looked down upon by Shanghailanders. Yet the less significant treaty ports, with their clubs and tiny foreign communities trusting in the protection provided by extraterritoriality, nevertheless formed an important part of the semi-colonial network in China, and provided a training ground for many officials and merchants who were on their way to bigger and better things.