In Their Footsteps – 33 Hui as the Origin of Jiangmen

I have a very favorable impression of Jiangmen due to a personal memory of my grandma. When WWII began, resources were scarce. She would take her mother’s Qing dynasty clothes to the merchants of Jiangmen in exchange for money. “One piece of my mother’s Qing dynasty tunic could be tailored into a few pieces of modern style clothing,” as she would tell me. Indeed, Jiangmen had every geographical feature that gave rise to its emergence as a key trading port in Guangdong Province.

The History of Jiangmen

Meaning “The Gate of the River,” Jiangmen at its inception as a trading port was an area flooded by the waters of Pengjiang River. Two islands, as mountains submerged in the river, were the land mass in this area. Jiangmen was the river mouth, where the river merged with the ocean. The view of these two mountaintop islands standing opposite to each other created the imagery that inspired Jiangmen’s name. The mountaintop islands were the gate of Pengjiang River.

Impressions of 33 Hui

From Nan Lou in Kaiping we called a car to ride for more than an hour before reaching the vicinity of 33 Hui, a photogenic area in Jiangmen. We had to walk through a web of alleyways to find it.

Photo: A nice alleyway on the way to 33 Hui

You can’t miss the oldest marketplace of Jiangmen, however. From every turn of the streets at 33 Hui, a sense of assuredness emanated. From the introductory signs there one sensed a pride revived — a dilapidated part of the city being thrusted into the national limelight because a popular Chinese TV drama called Kuangbiao (2023) was set in here.

Photo: A hair salon on Jingguo Jie capitalizing on the TV drama that was set in 33 Hui by offering hairdos that replicate the hairstyle of the TV drama’s characters.

Toward the dusk hours we headed into a world of old qilou’s, the sprawling arcades that typified the old urban developments of southern China. As the daylight waned, the street lamps casted a yellowish hue upon a busy street scene, unveiling an age-old community that has stood tall amidst the currents of time.

Yet 33 Hui clearly struggles between meeting the day-to-day needs of the locals and the sightseeing demands of the tourists. Throngs brushed shoulders under the arcades. Hawkers and proper shops alike placed their goods for sale, encroaching on the pedestrian walkways, and rather shamelessly so.

We were overwhelmed and opted to walk on the motorway instead. The loud honking of the vehicles brought us back to a time that my friend and I grew up in, when Hong Kong’s own streets held pedestrians spellbound in its chaos. We realized fully then that we have long lost a survival skill.

The History of 33 Hui

33 Hui, pronounced “Sanshisan Xu” in Mandarin, is known to be “the origin of Jiangmen.” Meaning “the 33 market,” this area of Jiangmen was established during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.

Photo: The 33 steps of 33 Hui are the most photographed in this part of Jiangmen

As early as 1363, during the Yuan Dynasty, a marketplace was set up in this area of Jiangmen. Situated on the western slopes of Penglai Mountain, the Jiangmen Market was the beginning of trade in the Jiangmen area. The street that was located on the very top of the market was called Xuding Jie (Top of Market Street), and it has remained so to this day.

33 Hui acquired its name due to the 33 steps on the major stairway in the market. This was the stairway that traders embarked upon to reach the marketplace from their arriving boats loaded with goods.

Photo: Jingguo Jie, a street for fruits

The names of the streets in 33 Hui convey a cultural history that echoes the aged structures on the streets. The street names indicate the kinds of goods being sold in those very early days of market life. Maijidi, for example, referrs to the fact that chickens were sold in this section of the market. Zhuzai Xu was then aptly named for the section that sold pigs. Streets named lantern and coffin suggest that the market offered all varieties of goods that met the needs of life, from food, to home furnishing, to netherworld necessities.

With careful navigation we made our way through to some of the most-visited spots in this area. Neither of us has heard of the TV drama. But we did see why 33 Hui is a good spot to film. As opposed to the studio city in Chikan, 33 Hui remains somewhat dilapidated and certainly unadorned. What stands out to a visitor of 33 Hui is a vitality that rises above the signs of decay. The neighborhood is assured of its meaningful existence as the origin of Jiangmen, and it will continue to shine as such.

Sources

Descriptions on site at 33 Hui, Jiangmen, Guangdong, China.