The so-called "Eight Banners Guild Hall" was originally located at the entrance of Zhantang in the southeast of the city. In those days, it was mostly a beach with siltation. The west side of the "Guild Hall" was Wanfu Street in the south of Wanfuqiao, east to Zhantang Chongbian, south to the Pearl River (now the Eight Banners Second Road), and north to the former navy flag camp playground. It was about 80 meters wide from east to west and about 150 meters long from north to south. The "Guild Hall" covers an area of about 18 mu, of which the buildings are only a small part, and most of the plots are mainly sheds for hauling coal, as well as docks and trestles extending into the river.
The original title of "Eight Banners Guild Hall" can be found in the text, which was written in the Ten-year Report of Guangdong Customs at the end of 19. The author is a foreigner of Guangdong Customs and Taxation Department, named Lei Leshi. The report said: "There are 23 guild halls or fellow villagers' associations in Guangzhou * * *, one of which is a flag bearer's club ... This flag bearer's club is funded by donations, and the land allocated to it was once a military camp ..." The report also mentioned that this is a "new coal storage warehouse built by China Engineering Mining Company". 1907 The Whole Map of Guangdong Provincial Capital, printed and published by Germany in both Chinese and English, was produced by German engineer Shule, and clearly marked here as "Eight Banners Guild Hall".
No matter what Lei Leshi called "China Engineering Mining Company", "Banners' Club" or "Eight Banners' Club" marked by Shule, they are all wrong! In fact, it was the property of Kaiping Guangdong Bureau, a subsidiary of the Northern Kaiping Mining Bureau, which was run by Beiyang officials at that time. The Cantonese called it Kaiping Official Coal Bureau. Kaiping Mining Bureau was a modern coal mine in China, which was opened in Kaiping, Hebei Province in the early days of Westernization (1878) (it was merged with Luanzhou Mining Bureau more than 20 years later and was called Kailuan Mining Bureau).
At that time, the Beiyang government-run commercial enterprises planned to develop in southern Guangdong, with Tang Tingshu, a famous comprador in China, as the protagonist. As early as the tenth year of Guangxu in Tang Dynasty (1884), it was envisaged to build a dock in Guangzhou or Foshan to sell Kaiping coal. It was not until the 16th year of Guangxu that Li Hongzhang, Minister of Beiyang and Governor of Zhili, strongly supported him, and he proposed a comprehensive plan to set up a "bureau" in Guangzhou. That winter, Tang went south for this matter, and lobbied Zheng Guanying, who lived in Guangdong (later known as "The Feast of Prosperity"), to come out of the mountain and join hands to advocate this move. On the 10th day of March in the 17th year of Guangxu, Zheng Guanying accepted the appointment of Li Hongzhang as the general manager of Guangdong Bureau of Kaiping Mining Bureau. Immediately, the plot was surveyed and allocated by the local government. After more than a year, it became "open file" in the early autumn of 1892.
With the opening of Kaiping Guangdong Bureau, the raw coal of Kaiping Coal Mine has been continuously transported to the south, breaking the monopoly of Hongji coal in Vietnam, and also making soybean oil, bean cake and soybean in the three northeastern provinces directly transported to Guangdong and then exported to profit. On the surface, this is a north-south transit station for Kaiping Mining Bureau to transport coal and facilitate merchants. In fact, it is an industrial and mining enterprise run by Beiyang officials and businessmen, and a bridgehead set up in the south to make full use of the entrepot advantage of Hong Kong's international trade, just like today's "Office in Guangzhou" and "Liaison Office in Guangdong". After the opening of Kaiping Guangdong Bureau, the foreign-related procurement business in the north was also transferred to Guangdong Bureau, so the cabins from the north no longer returned empty-handed, which not only greatly saved transportation costs and storage costs, but also exempted the purchase of foreign equipment and foreign goods from paying layers of re-export tariffs. Subsequently, all kinds of purchasing personnel of mining, cement and reclamation in the north also went south one after another, and most of them settled, gathered and negotiated with Kaiping Guangdong Bureau in Guangzhou, most of whom came from Fengzhi area in the north. 1926 The National Travel Guide for Commercial Ports called Sidi "Fengzhi Guild Hall", but it was a little close.
The guild hall is a convenient place for local people to go out for business, business, business trips and exams, and also has the functions of commerce and warehouse, such as Huguang Guild Hall, Guangdong Guild Hall, Anhui Guild Hall and Shanxi Guild Hall. Or the places where people in the industry get together to do things and study, such as the Bahe Hall, are all cultural products of the Han people, and the flag bearer has no such custom. However, in the eyes of foreigners who are not familiar with China culture, the place for gathering, recreation, trade and business talks should of course be a "clubhouse", which is translated into Chinese as a "guild hall", and it is called the "Eight Banners Guild Hall" when businessmen from Kaiping Guangdong Bureau come and go from south to north.
1902 Kaiping Mining Bureau changed hands with the British, while Kaiping Guangdong Bureau struggled to stand on its own feet in 1905. Probably from this time on, the old Guangzhou people gradually accepted the name of "Eight Banners Guild Hall" by foreigners. In addition, most of the people who come and go here are similar in figure and appearance, especially in accent, to the families of the officers and men of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and the Eight Banners of the Han Army who entered Guangdong in the Kanggan era, which means that this place is a "subordinate guy".
There are probably straightforward expressions in Guangzhou. For example, all mainlanders refer to "dude" without asking about their provincial origin, zhenhai tower in Yuexiu Mountain is used to calling it "five-story building" without remembering his real name, and Yong 'antang in Hu Wenhu, a long beach, goes straight to "tiger's standard" and doesn't know its real name. If so, the Eight Banners Guild Hall was called by Guangzhou people by word of mouth until the early days of the people's Republic of China when roads were built, which gave rise to the road names of "Eight Banners Avenue" (now East Road along the Yangtze River) and "Eight Banners Second Road".
The misleading of foreigners, the conformity of people in the street, and the obvious negligence of later scholars (for example, the Manchu flag bearer did not have the traditional custom of "guild hall") made the origin of the "Eight Banners Guild Hall" really "driving" (powerful) oblivious.
After the success of the Revolution of 1911, the official coal bureau was naturally buried by history. Although Kaiping Guangdong Bureau had nothing to do with the flag bearer, it was also set as the office of the General Administration of Civil Regiments by the Guangdong military government after the peaceful change of sovereignty. 19 17 In Guangzhou, Sun Yat-sen established the military government of the Republic of China to raise the flag to protect the law, and Sri Lanka became the "Guangdong Zhaofu Bureau" for recruiting and training soldiers. 1925 Guangdong military government was reorganized into the national government, and it became the ordnance room, military medical office and rear hospital of the National Army.
1at noon on June 20, 929, a loud noise, the sound of shells and bullets resounded through Guangzhou City, and the Eight Banners Guild Hall burst into flames for more than two hours and was in ruins. Afterwards, it was found out that the Guangdong army was injured in the battle between Chiang Kai-shek and Gui in the third rear hospital, and it was caused by playing with grenades and causing damage to the armory.
This ruthless fire made the Eight Banners Guild Hall disappear. I deeply regret that I have not been able to find the information to see the true content of "Eight Banners Guild Hall". It will be a blessing to study the history of urban construction in Guangzhou if some experts can provide information and photos to fill this gap.
-Yangcheng Evening News