Post by NZBC on Dec 12, 2009 20:51:14 GMT 12
The Liverpool Chinatown Business Association
The History of Chinatown
Liverpool has one of the oldest established Chinese communities in Europe. The trade links between China and Britain via the ports of Shanghai and Liverpool were instrumental in the establishment of a Chinese community within the city. The main trading goods were silk and cotton wool. The first vessel arrived in Liverpool direct from China in 1834. With the revision of the East India Company's charter, the China trade was for the first time thrown open to private enterprise.
The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in 1866 with the establishment of the Blue Funnel Shipping Line a branch of the Holt Ocean Steamship Company, which ran a line of steamers directly from Liverpool to China. Chinese sailors who decided to stay in Liverpool and work from here settled in an area of the city that was close to the docks in Cleveland Square.
Boarding houses were first opened by the Holt Shipping Company to accommodate their workers. According to Mr. So of the Wah Sing Chinese Community Centre by 1871 there were 202 Chinese settled in Liverpool.
www.lcba.net/