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Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two (Ningde and Nanping) and faces the Taiwan Strait. In older English works, its name may appear as Chinchew or Chinchu. In medieval Western accounts it is known as Zaytun or Zaitun, from the Arabic transcription.
The city was once the Eastern terminus of the Maritime Silk Road and home to a large (100,000 by some estimates!) international community, mostly Arabs but also including Persians, Indians and others. The English word "satin" comes from "Zaiton", the Arabic name for Quanzhou, the port from which that fabric reached the West.
Marco Polo sailed home from Quanzhou. He described it as the world's busiest port, with Alexandria a distant second.
After the emperor cut off foreign expeditions, destroyed the records and let the great ships rot in the 1420s, Quanzhou declined considerably. Today it is less well-known than the provincial capital Fuzhou or Special Economic Zone Xiamen, and certainly gets fewer tourists than either. However, it definitely has its own attractions, notably interesting architecture and good shopping.
Like most Chinese cities, Quanzhou has some of the standard ugly 8-storey concrete apartment blocks. However, there are far fewer of those than elsewhere and whole districts are much prettier. The city government has policies that require new buildings to follow certain architectural conventions. Downtown, there are many new 4 to 6 floor buildings with the traditional Chinese tile roofs with points on the corners. Near the old mosque there are new buildings with Islamic themes in the architecture. The rebuilding of the Zhongshan Road shopping area got a UNESCO award.
History
Quanzhou was established in 718 during the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907). In those days, Guangzhou was China's greatest seaport, but this status would be surpassed later by Quanzhou. During the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Quanzhou was one of the world's largest seaports, hosting a large community of foreign-born inhabitants from across the Eurasian world. Due to its reputation, Quanzhou has been called the starting point of the Silk Road via the sea.
Quanzhou is also a migration source of many Overseas Chinese living in South East Asia and to Taiwan during the last couple of centuries.
Geography
Quanzhou is a coastal prefecture bordered by Xiamen sub-provincial city to the south west. It also forms another border with Zhangzhou and Longyan prefecture level city towards the west. Putian and Fuzhou forms Quanzhou's north east border and Sanming from the north.
Quanzhou is mountainous and has many rivers and tributaries originating from the interior.
Dialect
The people of Quanzhou speak Min Nan. This is closely related to the Xiamen variant of Min Nan.
Districts
The prefecture-level city of Quanzhou administers 4 districts, 3 county-level cities and 5 counties.
* Licheng District
* Fengze District
* Luojiang District
* Quangang District
* Shishi City
* Jinjiang City
* Nan'an City
* Hui'an County
* Anxi County
* Yongchun County
* Dehua County
* Jinmen County
Economy
Quanzhou is a major exporter of agricultural products such as Tea, banana, lychee and rice. It is also a major producer of quarry granite and ceremics. Other industries include textiles, footwear, fashion and apparel, packaging, machinery, paper and petrochemicals.
Culture
A statue in Quanzhou portraying the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi, who lived in the 6th century BC during the Eastern Zhou period.
Quanzhou is one of the twenty-four famous historic cultural cities first approved by the Chinese Government.
* Liyuan Opera
* Puppet Show
* Gaojia Opera
* Dacheng Opera
Famous products
* Dehua Porcelain
* Huian Stoneware
* Anxi Tieguanyin
Transport
Jinjiang Domestic Airport
Colleges and universities
* Huaqiao University (national)
* Quanzhou Normal College (public)
* Quanzhou Medical College (public)
* Yang-en University (private)
Get in
Quanzhou, or rather Jinjiang across the river, has an airport with flights to Hong Kong and various mainland cities. Nearby Xiamen has a more important airport with good domestic connections and quite a few international flights.
There are frequent busses from Xiamen (￥27 to 35, 1.5 hours) or Fuzhou (￥46 to ￥65, 2.5 hours).
There are also direct overnight busses to/from more distant places such as Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, in the ￥300 range.
Bus stations in Quanzhou are a bit confusing. There are two main ones, a fairly large one in a new building toward the North of town and one that is much more central and looks more run down. The latter is the "new bus station".
Get around
Taxis start at ￥7 RMB and you can go almost anywhere in town for under ￥20.
See
The town has an assortment of religious buildings, some quite old. Only one Mosque of the many that used to exist survives, but it is worth seeing. The Qingjing Mosque is on Tumen Jie. There are Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian temples, as anywhere in China, plus Christian churches. One large and impressive Taoist temple is just East of the mosque. There are also Hindu and Zoroastrian temples, and the world's only surviving Manichean temple.
The "Old Saint", an enormous statue of Lao Tse, the founder of Taoism, on Qingyuanshan just outside town attracts people from all over China.
Quanzhou is famous for puppets. There is an excellent free puppet museum. They sometimes do shows, which are excellent, but not on a regular schedule. You need to be lucky to catch one, or to have a group of 20 or so people and make arrangements.
To find the museum: from the mosque, walk West (away from the Taoist temple) along Tumen Jie, take the first right, go a short distance and take the first right again. (If you reach a park on your right, you've gone too far.) The museum is a short way along on your left. (If you reach the French restaurant, you've gone too far).
Other museums include the Fujian-Taiwan Kinship Museum, the Quanzhou Museum, and the Maritime Museum.
Do
Climbing Qingyuanshan is a nice way to get away from the city, and some of its heat and noise. Mountain climbing in Qingyuanshan is a different experience from hiking in other places (at least compared to the US) - the paths up the mountain (large hill, really) are clearly marked, and paved in most places, with steps up the steeper parts. There are lots of places to buy drinks or snacks along the way, and temples, pavilions, and even some carnival-style games are there to distract you from your trek, if you like. Nonetheless, its a beautiful, strenuous climb, with dense tree canopies above and cicadas all around, with openings along the way with clear vistas of the city below. Wear good shoes and clothes you can sweat in.
Buy
There is large area of antique and curio shops on the North side of the mosque. They sell mainly to locals. Quality, variety and price are all better than most tourist areas. You do have to bargain fiercely, though.
White pottery from the village of Dehua outside Quanzhou has been a export item for centuries, known in Europe as "Blanc de Chine". Other ceramics are also made in the area. There are kilns going back a millennium or more.
Anxi outside Quanzhou produces one of China's most famous teas, Tie Guan Yin Oolong. Tie Guan Yin means Iron Goddess. Tie Guan Yin tea is available in countless shops throughout Quanzhou - in most you can sit and try a variety of grades of tea to decide which you want. These shops also sell the miniature tea sets that are most commonly used in this area - making and drinking tea this way is somewhat labor-intensive (each cup is smaller than a shot glass and a 'pot' is about as big as a coffee cup) but an enjoyable social experience. Making and serving tea in this way is not really a tea 'ceremony' in the sense of a Japanese tea ceremony, but it is still a ritualized and celebrated process.
North of the mosque, across the arched bridge over the small creek (Ba Gua Gou), is a traditional courtyard house that has been converted into a teahouse - this is a good place to get an introduction to the local tea service - your server can show you how to prepare the tea. Most tea shops will also be happy to give you an impromptu lesson in brewing tea.
Eat
Vegetarian There are several vegetarian restaurants near Chengtien temple on Nanjun Road - try Pu Ti, half a block north of Dong Jie (East Street) on Nanjun Road. Between Pu Ti and Dico's (a fried chicken fast food restaurant) is a restaurant called Wumingzi (No Name) that is a decent, buffet style place. There's another good (and quite fancy) vegetarian restaurant across Nanjun Road from the Carp City Hotel (Lichung Dajiudian).
Drink
Blenz Coffee on Nanjun Lu is good.
Zhuang Yuan Jie (Bar Street) is off Zhongshan Lu North of the center of town. It has many bars. One that expats go to is Mixing Tunnel Bar.
Contact
The area code for Quanzhou is 0595. When calling from overseas, dial +86 595 XXXX-XXXX
Get out
There is a train a couple of times a week to Wu Yi Mountain.
Bus to Fuzhou leaves from the bus station at southern end of the main tourist street (not the main bus station) and takes about 3 hours (60-70RMB).
