At 8pm on Sunday September 7, 1807, Rev. Robert Morrison arrived at Guangzhou after travelling miles from New York. He wrote in his diary, "the Lord's loving hands have finally brought me to the appointed place… all the noises from cargo ships by the shore… thrilled me. As my ship sailed past numerous locals'… I asked myself, '…What can I do for them?'" ("Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison")

Two centuries later, around the same spot in Guangzhou, several ministers and academics were following Rev. Chee-kong Lee on a stroll along Thirteen Hong Street, formerly the site of 'the Thirteen Hongs' (commercial firms), visiting Morrison's abode at the American warehouse; the former dock and harbour are now reclaimed land, making the river much narrower than in former days and 'the Thirteen Hongs' is now in name only, with a few sculptures at its entrance to mark the past Sino-foreign trading.

Sun Yat-Sen University ("SYU") and Christian Culture Society jointly organised a small conference that was sponsored by Ho Sai Ming Foundation, Hong Kong. Despite it being called 'an East-West cultural exchange', the conference was in fact set up as a bi-centenary celebration of Morrison's arrival in China. The conference, held on September 6-7, commenced with speeches by Prof. Feng Dawen, Director of the Institute of Comparative Religion, SYU, and Dr. Chee-kong Lee, Chairman of Christian Culture Society. Dr. Lee pointed out that Morrison had an intertwined relationship with Guangzhou, for he learned the language, socialized and translated the Bible in the bad-conditioned warehouses of the Thirteen Hongs. Morrison's contributions are not limited to spreading Christianity, but also to East-West cultural exchange; in particular his "A Dictionary of the Chinese Language" was the threshold through which 19th century foreign cultures enter into China. Prof. Feng looked at missions from the East-West cultural exchange perspective and pointed out that although the Unequal Treaties were introduced into China through Christianity, Christianity nonetheless had contributed much towards China's modernization, education and mercy ministries.

Conference participants came from places such as Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai. I presented a thesis that explored the early theology in evangelism during the period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Hong Xiu-quan: In his early Christian years and led by religious calling, Hong Xiu-quan promulgated worship of the only God and was very much against idol worshipping; surprisingly tens of thousands in extremely superstitious rural communities responded, and therefore we should learn from his indigenous theology and his passion in missions.

In the evening, Prof. Feng arranged for us to sail on the Pearl River in a replica ancient western ship; it was like having returned to the 19th century, although today's Guangzhou is very different.