British concession of Jiujiang

The British concession of Jiujiang (Chinese: 九江英租界; pinyin: Jiǔjiāng Yīng zūjiè), formerly transliterated Kiukiang, was a foreign concession in the Chinese city of Jiujiang which was under the control of the British Empire. Established in 1861 in the aftermath of the Second Opium War as a result of the Treaty of Tientsin, the concession remained under British control until 1929, when it was ceded to the Republic of China under the terms of the Chen-O'Malley Agreement. The only one of its kind in Jiujiang, the concession became home to a sizeable community of European expatriates during its existence.

Background

In 1860, the Second Opium War ended in a British victory, and the government of the Qing dynasty ratified the Treaty of Tientsin during the Convention of Peking, which granted the United Kingdom a foreign concession in a Chinese port city. Beginning in January 1861, British diplomat Harry Parkes travelled through the Yangtze river onboard a Royal Navy vessel to investigate local conditions and select the site of the new concession. After the foreign concessions in Zhenjiang and Hankou were delimited by 22 March, Parkes returned to Jiujiang from Hankou and decided to establish a concession in the city.

History

In 1861, Qing official Zhang Jixin signed the Treaty of Land Lease in Jiujiang with Parkes, which officially established the concession. Its borders were located in a narrow area in the western part of Jiujiang between the Yangtze and Gantang Lake, and covered an area of 150 acres. The southern portion of the concession included a port on the Yangtze. On 27 March 1862, the British concessional authorities resurveyed the boundaries of the concession, which led to a minor confrontation with a group of local residents.