Huizhou Merchants

Six hundred years ago, a community of Huizhou merchants emerged from southern China, who would dominate the country´s trade for three centuries. Huizhou is in a mountainous area of Anhui Province, where people have always struggled to eke out an existence from the poor soil. The Huizhou merchants were known as much for their love of learning as they were for their extensive business interests, ranging from tea, ink and brushes, and paper, to timber, salt and pawn-broking.