China crisis for the West

QUESTION The Opium Wars were the second time the Chinese battled the West. When was the first? There were, in fact, two conflicts with the West before the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century.

Portugal was the first western power to arrive in China in 1516. The delegation received a frosty reception and rumours spread that the Portuguese were cannibals and child kidnappers.

In 1521, there was a skirmish between a Portuguese trading fleet and the Chinese.

The following year, a new Portuguese fleet arrived seeking to mend relations. It was routed at the Battle of Shancaowan.

In 1624, the Dutch east India Company set up a base in Taiwan, employing local labourers on its rice and sugar plantations.

In 1661, loyalists fleeing the Manchurian conquest of the Ming dynasty drove out the Dutch following the Siege of Fort Zeelandia, where thousands starved to death. Dutch soldiers were beheaded en masse.

Donald Fraser, Inverness. QUESTION Is there a Chinese replica Stratford-upon-Avon? FUrTher to the earlier answer, Stratford-upon-Avon in Fuzhou will not be the first British town mimicked by the Chinese.

Thames Town near Shanghai has cobbled streets, corner pubs and Victorian style houses.

The church is modelled on Christ Church in Bristol, a pub is based on The Cross in Chester and the chippy is a replica of one in Lyme regis, Dorset.

The town is popular as a setting for wedding photography.

K. Timms, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.