Museum

Guangzhou Thirteen Factories Museum

Address: 37 Xidi 2nd Road, Guangzhou Cultural Park, Liwan District
Area: Guangzhou, China
Districts: Liwan

Mon: Closed
Tue: 09:00–17:30
Wed: 09:00–17:30
Thu: 09:00–17:30
Fri: 09:00–17:30
Sat: 09:00–17:30
Sun: 09:00–17:30
Hours: Last entry at 17:00; closed on Mondays except public holidays.
Price: Free admission: CNY 0.
How to visit: Bring valid identification to exchange for an admission ticket. Groups and visitors requesting a guided tour should book in advance; the museum is on the west side of No. 37 Xidi 2nd Road.
Hours: Free entry
Hours: Ticket required
Hours: About 90–150 min

Guangzhou Thirteen Factories Museum — Anonymous. Sometimes listed as French from the style, but also given as Chinese from the similarity to other export paintings of the same scene, Public domain

Why it is worth the detour

The museum stands within the former riverfront district where foreign merchants were confined under the Canton System. Its maps, trade goods and reconstructed interiors explain how tea, silk and porcelain fortunes collided with opium smuggling, diplomatic pressure and the destruction of the factories in 1856.

The Guangzhou Thirteen Factories Museum is located in the former riverfront district where foreign merchants were confined under the Canton System. It showcases maps, trade goods, and reconstructed interiors, illustrating the historical trade dynamics and conflicts of the era.

What else is close by

The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.

200 m
Canton Customs Mansion
The clock-towered building dates from 1916, but its museum traces Canton Customs back to its establishment in 1685 and through the tightly controlled Canton System. It marks the transformation of Guangzhou's waterfront from a Qing customs regime serving the Thirteen Factories into a modern treaty-port customs administration.
250 m
Memorial to the Shakee Massacre
A memorial commemorating the victims of the Shakee Massacre in 1925.
450 m
Former Banque de l'Indochine Building
This French colonial bank, popularly called the finest building on Shamian, linked Guangzhou's finances with France's commercial empire in Indochina. An unauthorized 2007 redevelopment stripped out walls, fireplaces and imported historic fabric, creating a modern preservation scandal before the badly altered landmark was restored and reopened for cultural use.
550 m
Former Site of the First National Labour Congress
More than 170 labor representatives gathered in this former machine-workers' guild hall in May 1922, attempting to unite China's fragmented unions into a national movement. The site was forgotten so thoroughly that its identity required years of research to re-establish; the original hall, timber staircase and other early fabric survived the lapse in memory. ([gzwxb.gov.cn](https://gzwxb.gov.cn/context/contextId/206436?utm_source=openai))
600 m
Guangdong Victory Hotel (Former Victoria Hotel)
Vietnamese revolutionary Phạm Hồng Thái attacked a banquet here in 1924, hurling a concealed bomb at French Indochina governor-general Martial Merlin; Merlin survived, five guests died, and Phạm drowned while fleeing. The bombing became the pretext for discriminatory pass regulations on Chinese workers, triggering the victorious Shamian strike later that year.
600 m
Shamian West Bridge
Built in 1861 as one of the concession's tightly controlled entrances, this small bridge physically marked the boundary between foreign-administered Shamian and the Chinese city. On June 23, 1925, British and French forces fired toward a huge anti-imperialist procession passing the bridge and canal, killing more than fifty people in the Shakee Massacre.