1840年夏，四十八條艦船同四千幾名官兵組成嘅英國遠徵軍封鎖廣州珠江口，鴉片戰爭爆發。1841年五月，廣州城郊三元里民眾同英國部隊發生戰鬥。隨著1842年《南京條約》簽訂，廣州壟斷對外貿易嘅時代宣告結束。此約逼使清政府開放埋福州、廈門、寧波同上海四個港口。
In the summer of 1840, the United Kingdom Expeditionary Force, consisting of 48 ships and more than 4,000 officers and men, blockaded the Pearl River Estuary in Guangzhou, and the Opium War broke out. In May 1841, fighting broke out between the people of Sanyuanli on the outskirts of Guangzhou and the United Kingdom troops. With the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the era of Guangzhou's monopoly on foreign trade came to an end. This treaty forced the Qing government to open the four ports of Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai.