This article explores the reasons behind Marseille’s lack of commercial ties with the Far East, retracing the route embarked upon by both trading spaces that would lead up to their encounter. Between 1815 and 1860, the British were transforming the Chinese market into an informal Empire and Western powers considered Qing dynasty China to be a particularly attractive market for their manufactured goods. Contrary to the keen interest displayed by others, the ship-owners and merchants of Marseille, the world’s fourth largest port, remained deaf to the siren call of the Far East. Though their fleets crisscrossed the globe’s oceans, they did not operate in the China Sea. Their absence has a two-fold explanation. First, they preferred their traditional maritime and commercial routes throughout the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Second, they were at a disadvantage in Asia due to the restrictive colonial trade regulations inherited from the preceding century. The establishment of French-Chinese diplomatic ties in 1844 did not change the situation. It is only during the second half of the 19th century, when elements exterior to Marseille coalesced, that the city acquired its reputation, still vibrant in popular imagination, as the gateway to the East, both near and far.