Hsia-men

They sailed from the great seaport of Cathay: Zaiton (modern Hsia-men), in a fleet of fourteen ships brought together on Kublai's orders. The ships Marco described were far bigger than anything built in Europe at that time.

After Li Tan's death in 1625, Hsu Hsin-su (許心素), leader of the Chang-chou people dwelling in and around the city of Hsia-men (廈門, or Amoy), emerged as his successor.

He went to Hsia-men with his fellow townsman Wu Chen-hsing in 1922, and engaged in brewery in the beginning before devoting himself to tung oil soaked paper umbrella manufacturing.

Chinese traders, mostly from the southern ports of Amoy (Hsia-men) and Canton, took raw silk, fabrics, and apparel to Manila, where these cargoes were sold for silver and carried back for sale in the New World.