In the sixteenth century, Chinese immigrants from Fujian province began settling in the Philippines; in the nineteenth century, a further wave of Chinese immigrants, this time from Guangdong province, started arriving there. Thus, when the American colonial administration of the Philippines commenced in 1898, Chinese immigrants had been operating in the islands for more than three hundred years. By looking at a variety of sources-colonial government publications as well as Chinese archives, journals, and newspapers-this article explores the changes that American colonial rule brought to Chinese merchants in the Philippines. An examination of the materials shows that the Fujianese remained the largest group of ethnic Chinese merchants, even as the number of Cantonese merchants was growing steadily. Most Chinese immigrants lived in towns (埠 pu) and villages (社 she) not far from open ports, because Chinese people were usually involved in maritime trade and the inland marketing of rice, clothes and groceries. In the mid-1930s, after the U.S. placed restrictions on the import of sugar, Chinese sugar merchants could only sell their product to other east Asia destinations such as Japan and China. Another change wrought by American colonial rule was the creation of a new breed of businessmen: lumber merchants, who came into existence by taking advantage of preferential American policies. This article also suggests that in the context of strengthening American-Filipino economic relations, the activities of Chinese businessmen were influenced by access to Chinese coastal regions, harbor improvements, restrictions on vessels with low tonnage and the closing of small southern ports.