Jorge Álvares Reaches China
Jorge Álvares landed at Tamão in the Pearl River delta near present-day Guangzhou on 17 April 1513, becoming the first European known to have landed in China. His visit was commercial rather than diplomatic — a Portuguese trading expedition testing Chinese receptiveness — and was followed by further Portuguese approaches that met with mixed Chinese responses. The first formal Portuguese embassy to the Ming court under Tomé Pires (1516–1517) was eventually expelled, and Portuguese traders were banned from Chinese ports following a series of diplomatic incidents, leading to decades of unofficial trade from offshore islands before the Portuguese were granted Macau in 1557.
- Year: 1513 CE
