Guangzhouwan

The leased territory was situated on the east side of the Leizhou (Luichow) Peninsula ({{langx|fr|Péninsule de Leitcheou}}), near Guangzhou, around a bay then called Kwangchowan, now called the Port of Zhanjiang. The bay forms the estuary of the Ma-The River ({{langx|fr|link=no|Rivière Ma-The}}, {{zh|t=麻斜河|p=Máxié hé}}), now known as the Zhanjiang Waterway ({{zh|t=湛江水道|p=Zhànjiāng shuǐdào}}){{Cite web |last=Chen |first=Chienwen |title=廣州灣 |url=https://dictionary.chienwen.net/word/ee/bb/c17656-%E5%BB%A3%E5%B7%9E%E7%81%A3.html |access-date=January 21, 2024 |website=國語辭典}} which is navigable as far as {{convert|19|km|sp=us}} inland even by large warships.

The territory leased to France included the islands lying in the bay, which enclosed an area 29 km long by 10 km wide and a minimum water depth of {{convert|10|meters|fathom|sp=us}}. The islands were then renowned for their admirable natural defenses, the main island being Île de Tan-Hai. On the smaller Île Nau-Chau farther to the southeast, a lighthouse was constructed. Another island of significant size is {{ill|Île Nansan|lt=Île des Aigrettes|fr|Île Nansan}} located to the northeast.

The limits of the territory inland were fixed in November 1899; on the left bank of the Ma-the, France gained from Gaozhou prefecture (Kow Chow Fu) a strip of territory {{convert|18|km|mi|sp=us}} by {{convert|10|km|mi|sp=us}}, and on the right bank a strip {{convert|24|km|mi|sp=us}} by {{convert|18|km|mi|sp=us}} from Leizhou prefecture (Luichowfu).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Its total land area consisted {{convert|1300|km2|sp=us|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Priestly|1967|p=441}}

File:Kwangchowan. Fort Bayard.jpg

Kwangchowan was leased to the French for 99 years according to the Treaty of May 29, 1898, ratified by China on January 5, 1900, during the "scramble for concessions". The colony was described as "commercially unimportant but strategically located"; most of France's energies went into their administration of the mainland of French Indochina, and their main concern in China was the protection of Roman Catholic missionaries, rather than the promotion of trade.{{sfn|Gale|1970|p=201}} Kwangchow Wan, while not a constituent part of Indochina, was effectively placed under the authority of the French Resident Superior in Tonkin (itself under the Governor-General of French Indochina, also in Hanoi); the French Resident was represented locally by Administrators.{{Sfn|Olson|1991|p=349}} In addition to the territory acquired, France was given the right to connect the bay by rail with the city and harbor situated on the west side of the peninsula; however when they attempted to take possession of the land to build the railway, forces of the provincial government offered armed resistance. As a result, France demanded and obtained exclusive mining rights in the three adjoining prefectures.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The return of the leased territory to China was promised after the First World War by the French at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921–1922,{{sfn|Escarra|1929|p=9}} but that promise was not fulfilled until 1945, by which time the territory had already ceased to be under French rule.

By 1931, the population of Kwangchowan had reached 206,000, giving the colony a population density of 245 persons per km² (630 per square mile); virtually all Chinese, and only 266 French citizens and four other Europeans were recorded as living there.{{sfn|Priestly|1967|p=441}} Industries included shipping and coal mining.{{Sfn|Olson|1991|p=349}} The port was also popular with smugglers; prior to the 1928 cancellation of the American ban on the export of commercial airplanes, Kwangchow Wan was also used as a stop for Cantonese smugglers transporting military aircraft purchased in Manila to China,{{sfn|Xu|2001|p=21}} and American records mention at least one drug smuggler who picked up opium and paper sons (Chinese American emigrants circumventing the Chinese Exclusion Act) to smuggle into the United States.{{sfn|Anslinger|Tompkins|1953|p=141}}

File:Kwangchowan Japanese military occupation 1943.jpg

As an adjunct of French Indochina, Kwangchow Wan generally endured the same fate as the rest of the Indochina colony during World War II. Even before the signing of the August 30, 1940 accord with Japan in which France recognized the “privileged status of Japanese interests in the Far East” and which constituted the first step of the Japanese military occupation of Indochina, a small detachment of Japanese marines had landed at Fort Bayard without opposition in early July and set up a control and observation post in the harbor.{{sfn|Matot|2013|p=193}} However, as in the rest of French Indochina, the civilian administration of the territory was to remain in the hands of officials of Vichy France following the Fall of France; in November 1941, Governor-General Jean Decoux, newly appointed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, made an official visit to Kwangchow Wan.{{sfn|Matot|2013|p=194}}

In mid-February 1943, the Japanese, after having informed the Vichy government that they needed to strengthen the defenses of Kwangchow Wan, unilaterally landed more troops and occupied the airport and all other strategic locations in the Territory. From then on, Kwangchow Wan was de facto under full military Japanese occupation and the French civilian administration was gradually reduced to a mere façade. The Administrator resigned in disgust and Adrien Roques, a local pro-Vichy militant, was appointed to replace him.{{sfn|Matot|2013|p=204}} In May of the same year, Roques signed a convention with the local Japanese military authorities in which the French authorities promised to cooperate fully with the Japanese. On March 10, 1945, the Japanese, following up on their sudden attack on French garrisons throughout Indochina the night before, disarmed and imprisoned the small French colonial garrison in Fort Bayard.{{sfn|Matot|2013|pp=209-210}} Just prior to the Japanese surrender, Chinese forces were prepared to launch a large-scale assault on Kwangchow Wan; however, due to the end of the war, the assault never materialized.{{sfn|Handel|1990|p=242}} While the Japanese were still occupying Kwangchow Wan following the surrender, a French diplomat from the Provisional Government of the French Republic and Kuo Chang Wu, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China, signed the Convention between the Provisional Government of the French Republic and the National Government of China for the retrocession of the Leased Territory of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. Almost immediately after the last Japanese occupation troops had left the territory in late September, representatives of the French and the Chinese governments went to Fort Bayard to proceed to the transfer of authority; the French flag was lowered for the last time on November 20, 1945.{{sfn|Matot|2013|pp=214-217}}

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Kwangchowan was often used as a stopover on an escape route for civilians fleeing Hainan and Hong Kong for Thailand, North America and Free China; Patrick Yu, a prominent trial lawyer, recalled in his memoirs how a Japanese military officer helped him escape in this way.{{sfn|Yu|2000|p=38}} However, the escape route was closed when the Japanese occupied the area in February 1943.{{Sfn|Olson|1991|pp=349–350}}

File:1935 Guangdong sheng zuo.png

The territory was formally returned to the Republic of China on August 18, 1945 after a meeting{{clarify|date=July 2024}} between the French and Chinese.{{Cite book |last=Kang |first=Mathilde |title=Francophonie and the Orient: French-Asian transcultural crossings (1840-1940) |date=2018 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-4027-3 |series=Languages and culture in history |location=Amsterdam |pages=75}}

{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}

A French language school (École Franco-Chinoise de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan) and French bank (Bank of Indochina), among other institutions were set up;Le Papier Colonial some such as the Church of St. Victor are extant.{{sfn|Li|Ou|2001}}

File:Kwangchowan pavilion 1906.jpg|Kwangchow Wan pavilion at the Marseille Colonial Exhibition

File:Kouang-tchéou-wan..jpg|Post and Telegraph building in Poteou, Kwangchow Wan

File:Kwangchowan militia.jpg|Colonial militia with French officers

File:Kouang-Tchéou-Wan School.jpg|Pupils and teachers of the École franco-chinoise de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan

{{Portal|China|France|Asia|Geography|History}}

• China–France relations
• French Indochina
• Zhanjiang

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{citation |year = 1953 |publisher = Funk and Wagnalls |last1 = Anslinger |first1 = H.J. |last2 = Tompkins |first2 = William F. |title = The Traffic in Narcotics |url = https://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/people/anslinger/traffic/ }}
• {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle = Kwangchow Bay |volume = 15 |page = 957 }}
• {{citation |title = Le régime des concessions étrangères en Chine |last=Escarra |first=Jean |year=1929 |publisher=Académie de droit international }}
• {{citation |contribution = International Relations: The Twentieth Century |title=China |last=Gale |first = Esson M. |pages = 200–221 |publisher=Ayer Publishing |year=1970 |isbn = 0-8369-1987-4 }}
• A. Choveaux, "Situation économique du territoire de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan en 1923". Annales de Géographie, Volume 34, Nr. 187, pp. 74–77, 1925.
• {{citation |last=Handel |first=Michael |title=Intelligence and Military Operations |year=1990 |publisher=Routledge |location=United Kingdom }}
• {{citation |journal = Study and Preservation of Chinese Modern Architecture Series |volume=1 |title = 湛江维多尔天主教堂考察 |trans-title = Research on the Victor Catholic Church of Zhanjiang |year = 2001 |publisher = Tsinghua University |last1 = Li |first1 = Chuanyi |last2 = Ou |first2 = Jie |url = http://www.arch.tsinghua.edu.cn/cscmah/congshu-1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141021191949/http://www.arch.tsinghua.edu.cn/cscmah/congshu-1.htm |archive-date = 2014-10-21 }}
• {{citation |last=Luong |first=Hy Van |title = Revolution in the Village: tradition and transformation in North Vietnam, 1925–1988 |publisher = University of Hawaii Press |location = Hawaii |year = 1992 }}
• {{cite book|last=Matot|first=Bertrand|title=Fort Bayard. Quand la France vendait son opium|year=2013|publisher=Éditions François Bourin|location=Paris}}
• {{citation |editor-last=Olson |editor-first=James S. |editor-link=James S. Olson |title = Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |year=1991 }}
• {{citation |title = State and Smuggling in Modern China: The Case of Guangzhouwan/Zhanjiang |last = Pieragastini |first=Steven |year=2017 |publisher=Cross-Currents e-Journal (No. 25) |url = https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-25/pieragastini }}
• {{citation |title = France Overseas: Study of Modern Imperialism |last = Priestly |first=Herbert Ingram |year=1967 |publisher=Routledge |location = United Kingdom }}
• {{citation |title = Kouang Tchéou-Wan, colonie clandestine: Un territoire à bail français en Chine du Sud 1898-1946 |last = Vannière |first= Antoine |year= 2020 |publisher= Indes Savantes }}
• {{citation |last = Xu |first = Guangqiu |title = War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949 |year=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0-313-32004-7 }}
• {{citation |last = Yu |first = Patrick Shuk-Siu |title = A Seventh Child and the Law |year=2000 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |location=Hong Kong, China }}
• {{citation |url = http://www.lepapiercolonial.com/home.php?cat=310 |title = lettres > par pays > Chine > Kouang-Tcheou-Wan |publisher=Le Papier Colonial: la France d'outre-mer et ses anciennes colonies |access-date=2007-01-01 }}{{dead link|date=October 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Includes images of letters sent to and from the territory.

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|Kouang-tchéou Wan}}

• {{cite web|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41270563p/date|title=Compte administratif du budget local du territoire de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan|publisher=National Library of France}}
• [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/China_Foreign_colonies.html#Kwangchowan WorldStatesmen - China]
• {{Cite web |url=http://chikan.gov.cn/ckwf/cksh.htm |title=Historic pictures of Fort Bayard |access-date=November 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012163238/http://chikan.gov.cn/ckwf/cksh.htm |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}
• [http://www.indochine-souvenir.com/cartes/fortbayard.jpg Map of French Guangzhouwan]
• [http://blog.voyagesmillebornes.com/public/cambodge/carte_indochine_1947_blog.jpg Map of French Indochina and Guangzhouwan]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111005185836/http://md.bidoir.free.fr/indochine2.jpg Other map about Guangzhouwan and Indochina]
• [http://belleindochine.free.fr/images/Plan/1909/KouangTcheouWang.JPG Map of Kwang Tcheou Wan]
• [http://emsique.blogspot.fr/2013/04/french-colonial-zhanjiang.html "French Colonial Zhanjiang"]

{{French Indochina}}

{{Former French colonies}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guangzhouwan}}

Category:1898 establishments in China

Category:China–France relations

Category:Concessions in China

Category:Former countries in Chinese history

Category:Former French colonies

Category:History of Guangdong

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1945

Category:Unequal treaties

Category:Zhanjiang