Cha-pu

One route to Shanghai went via river and canal, and the second was to Cha-pu (in Chekiang) which at the time evidently stood at the mouth of a river directly connecting the Grand Canal below Soochow with the sea. Ts’ai also seems to indicate that the trade via Cha-pu was the larger, since it is there, he advises, the needed grain should be purchased.¹³ The impression that the Cha-pu route was the dominant one is further strengthened by an earlier report in 1706 that Cha-pu was the port for shipment of rice out of Soochow to Fukien.¹⁴