A Voyage to the Ancient City of Hangzhou

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Hello, my name is Arjun, and I am a merchant. I grew up in an upper-class family and was given a good education. I decided that I wanted to be a merchant, like my father, and so I used my education and class to acquire all goods that I needed. I used my father's money to buy a ship, and pay for a crew. All my life, I have traded within my city, Baghdad, but now, hearing of the rumors of the riches of China, I have decided to travel and trade there, and see the city with my own eyes. I will not be leaving anyone behind, and I wish to create a better life for myself. If the rumors are true, then I will return with silks, and hopefully the rumored gunpowder. I have heard that they are in need of sugar and spices, for that is all that I have.




Update 1- After a long journey through monsoons, I have finally arrived at the world renowned city of Hangzhou, and it is just as beautiful as I have heard. As I near the city, I stared in wonder. I had finally arrived at the port, and I was baffled by the sheer amount of commotion going on in one city. As I approach the trade routes, I saw some locals talking amongst themselves, and tried to listen. As I tried to understand what they were saying, I realized I had made a big mistake. I didn’t speak Chinese. And I was in China. I started to look around, for someone like myself, who I might be able to talk to. I say nobody and went back to my ship. I asked my crew, and one who had worked for my father told me to go left out of the port and walk until I saw people I could talk to. I didn’t understand what he meant, but I had nowhere else to go. I walked out and turned left. I started to walk by, catching the looks of the Chinese, and eventually, I understood what the sailor was talking about. I saw a group of Arabs, huddled outside a shop. I approached them, and I said hi, just to see if they understood me. They did, and as I began to talk to them, I was baffled by the fact that they lived in this city, and the amount of distrust around them, from their recent invasion, and loss of land. I looked around and said that the city looked amazing, and I didn’t understand how they had just been invaded. They agreed and we continued to talk. I asked about trade going on, and they told me that I was only one of many Arab traders to come in contact with them. That meant that there were things to trade, and money to be made. Eventually, I decided to head back to my ship, with a newfound confidence that I would be successful in my attempts to trade.




Update 2- Today, I have finally decided to create relationships with the nearby traders in the city. As I walked around searching for traders silk and the precious silkworms, I couldn’t help but notice the vastness of the city. There were at least ten markets of enormous size all around the city, each with a large variety of goods being exchanged. That wasn’t all, there were orphanages, free hospitals and care centers provided by the city, where citizens could go. They even had an army of men on the ready to combat any fires that threaten the city. The technology was unlike anything I had ever seen! The men were each armed with clothing to prevent fires from catching on them and buckets to put it out. I noticed the city was broken down into clearly defined sections, each guarded by their own regiment of soldiers. Dare I say this rivaled the developments of my home city Baghdad! The weaponry of the soldiers guarding it was extremely peculiar as well. I have heard some rumors from other traders of a black powder the Chinese are using to produce these firearms and what they are calling cannons. If I could get my hands on some of this powder, I could bring it to the world and become incredibly wealthy. However, I do not think I will be able to as I also heard it is one of the state's most closely guarded secrets.




Update 3- I woke up, had breakfast on the ship, and went out to go find some of the people who I’d talked to a couple of days ago. When I went to find them, I went down to the restaurant, and they weren't there. I continued to look and saw a couple of them standing outside of a house that looked like it could've come from home. I went to go and talk to them and ask them if they could speak Chinese. A couple of them said that they could, so I pulled out some gold coins, and offered them, in exchange for them to be my translator. All of them looked at me weirdly and asked what I had in my hand. I got really scared because, without money, this would be a very short journey. They told me that I should take my money to a “bank” and return with a slip of paper. Paper! What was going on? I finally went and exchanged some of my gold. I didn't completely trust these people, so I kept most of my gold but exchanged enough to pay for a translator. After that was all done with, I headed down to the ports, to see what I could trade. When I arrived, it was very active. I walked around and talked to traders and merchants from places I’d never even heard of. Eventually, I decided that it was time to go and get lunch. My translator and I walked to the nearest restaurant and bought some food. As we ate, I heard two Chinese men talking. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, so I asked my translator what they were saying. He said they were just talking about how great some new rice is. I didn’t really understand, but I just shook my head. After a while, we returned to the market, and we discussed trading sugar for silk. We found a price that was satisfying to both of us, and we agreed to meet at the docks of my ship the next day, with the goods. Right before he left I told him that I could pay him a lot of money, if he could get me some of the “black powder” that everyone was so crazy about. He shot me a glare and walked away. I decided that that was enough for the day, and went back to my ship.




Update 4- I woke up early to assemble my goods and put them in a place where the Chinese merchant could see my goods, but not take them. I wasn’t fully sure if I could trust him. I was worried he would not be attracted by the sugar and other wares I had obtained during my voyage through the cities of Muscat and Madras. I couldn’t read whether or not he was willing to trade his valuable silk and manufactured goods. We bantered back and forth, neither of us making any progress on obtaining on each other's goods. Eventually, I decided to throw some of that paper currency that I had gotten a few days ago into the mix. This apparently got him very interested. This combined with my original wares, we were finally able to strike a satisfying deal. The Chinese man, who then revealed he was a master of a trading guild hundreds of men strong, told me his men would arrive at my ship within a week to exchange the goods. We signed a paper completing the transaction and we both went our separate ways. For my first trade experience, this went surprisingly well. His men arrived right on schedule and unloaded the sugar we had agreed upon, however, my attention was on the crates of precious silk. I couldn’t help but think to myself all the riches this amount of silk would bring me, given how valuable it was. I had decided to call it a day after the transaction and returned to my quarters.




Update 5- As I realized that my job here was done, I walked back to my ship. I asked some of my crew when we could go home, and one of them looked at me and started to laugh. He proceeded to explain something about monsoon winds, and that we had to wait for around 6-12 months for the winds to allow us to go home. I just stared at him in wonder, wondering what I was going to do with all my time. I realized that I still had a lot of gold on the ship, but nothing to do with my time. I began to walk around the city. I saw some very large buildings and got curious about what was inside, so I walked in. My translator had returned to his home after the trading was done, and I had no idea what was going on around me, but I saw a lot of books around me. I realized that this was a library, and I pulled one of the books around me off the shelf, opened it up, looked at the words, and realized I couldn’t read Chinese. Realizing that I had months to spare, I realized that I wanted to know more about what was held in this library. I went back to my boat, realizing that I wanted to know more about those books. I woke up the next day and went to the place where I could talk to people. I asked them if they knew what the books held, and a few of them gave me the same answer, that it held Chinese traditions inside it. I was still curious, so I hired one of them to translate for me. I walked into the temple, and asked about the books,. They told me that the books held knowledge on what people should do, and how they should live their lives. They called these beliefs about neo-Confucianism and the writings of Confucian great Confucian poets and scholars. I noticed they spoke strongly about morality and serving once country and elders. From these books, I could also tell intellectualism was valued highly in this society. I said that that was very interesting and thanked them for their time. I left and waited out the time in restaurants and my ship.




Update 6- Finally the day comes where I can begin my return back to my homeland. It's been long incredibly boring waiting for the monsoon winds. I had already traded all my goods long before they shifted for a return journey. I had to wait for nearly half a year in this foreign kingdom in order to return. During my time here I began to see more and more of the Chinese distaste for foreigners. Asking around, fellow merchants told me the last dynasty that ruled over China fell because of the ‘An Lushan Rebellion’, caused by a foreigner. Ever since this event, the Chinese have been very careful and exclusive when it comes to outsiders. I would agree with them if our caliphate hadn’t united nearly all of Northern Africa. While the Chinese didn’t treat us, traders, too bad as we brought good business to their soils, I could tell they would have much rathered we left their ‘oh so superior society’. Frankly, I find the extent of their nationalistic and ethnocentric point of view disturbing and destructive. If they don't allow the ideas and developments of others into their society they will fall behind and collapse. Most of the merchants and other Arabs that I had met are also departing from their communities to return home, so I must now prepare my vessel for the voyage.





The cultural heritage of Hangzhou is considered by the locals to be the “jewel in the crown of this history-laden city”. Today this city prospers in trade and culture. The city still has similar ideas as it had before, however many things have changed. The city has fallen into the background of China, no longer being the bustling trade capital of the world it once was. However, this does not mean that the city has fallen behind; while it may not be as famous, it still is one of China's most prosperous urban centers. In many was the culture and way of buying and selling in markets of the people have remained the way it was a thousand years ago, only with skyscrapers and cars in the background.

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Photos

Trade Map
Map of the various trade route of Indian Ocean Trade

Market Place
The marketplace where the populous and traders would come to buy and sell wares

Paper money
Song Dynasty's paper bills used in their banks

Gunpowder
An example of the advanced weaponry and technology the Song Chinese would use the black powder for

Market Place
Once again, another Chinese marketplace showing the various interactions between people.

Port
An Ancient Chinese Port, giving an example of what it may have looked like

Monsoon Winds
A map of the direction of the seasonal trade winds uses to move between trade locations