 The original Shar-Pei from China may have looked very different from the breed now popular in the West (but that has not been confirmed); in southern China, Hong Kong, and Macau the Western type and the traditional type are differentiated by calling them, respectively, the 'meat-mouth' and the 'bone-mouth' Shar-Pei.The Guangdong province in China was also a popular trading place during the Han dynasty, and it is unclear if the Shar-Pei was brought to China, or if it was originally bred in China.The Shar-Pei's loose skin and extremely prickly coat were originally developed to help the dogs fend off wild boar, as they were used to hunt.