Because of its importance for medieval maritime commerce, unique mix of religious buildings, and extensive archeological remains, "Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China [zh]" was inscribed on the UNESCOWorld Heritage List in 2021.[3]
Names
Quanzhou (also known as Zayton or Zaiton in British and American historical sources) is the atonalpinyinromanization of the city's Chinese name 泉州, using its pronunciation in the Mandarindialect. The name derives from the city's former status as the seat of the imperial Chinese Quan ("Spring") Prefecture. Ch'üan-chou was the Wade-Giles romanization of the same name;[4][5][6] other forms include Chwanchow-foo,[7]Chwan-chau fu,[8]Chwanchew,[9]Ts'üan-chou,[10]Tswanchow-foo,[7]Tswanchau,[9]T'swan-chau fu,[8]Ts'wan-chiu,[11]Ts'wan-chow-fu,[12]Thsiouan-tchéou-fou,[8] and Thsíouan-chéou-fou.[7] The romanizations Chuan-chiu,[11]Choan-Chiu,[13] and Shanju[14] reflect the localHokkien pronunciation.
The Postal Mapname of the city was "Chinchew",[15] a variant of Chincheo, the Portuguese and Spanish transcription of the localHokkien name for Zhangzhou,[c] the major Fujianese port trading with Macao and Manila in the 16th and 17th centuries.[7] It is uncertain when or why British sailors first applied the name to Quanzhou.
Its Arabic name Zaiton[16] or "Zayton"[17] (زيتون), once popular in English, means "[City] of Olives" and is a calque of Quanzhou's former Chinese nickname Citong Cheng meaning "tung-tree city", which is derived from the avenues of oil-bearing tung trees ordered to be planted around the city by the city's 10th-century ruler Liu Congxiao.[18][19] Variant transcriptions from the Arabic name include Caiton,[20]Çaiton,[20]Çayton,[20]Zaytún,[12]Zaitûn,[7]Zaitún,[8] and Zaitūn.[18] The etymology of satin derives from "Zaitun". [22][23][24]
Geography
Quanzhou proper lies on a split of land between the estuaries of the Jin River and Luoyang River as they flow into Quanzhou Bay [zh] on the Taiwan Strait. Its surrounding prefecture extends west halfway across the province and is hilly and mountainous. Along with Xiamen and Zhangzhou to its south and Putian to its north, it makes up FujianProvince's Southern Coast region. In its mountainous interior, it borders Longyan to the southwest and Sanming to the northwest.
Climate
The city features a humid subtropical climate. Quanzhou has four distinct seasons. Its moderate temperature ranges from 0 to 38 degrees Celsius. In summer, there are typhoons that bring rain and some damage to the city.
Wang Guoqing [zh] (王國慶) used the area as a base of operations for the Chen State before he was subdued by the Sui general Yang Su in the AD590s.[29] Quanzhou proper was established under the Tang in 718[16] on a spit of land between two branches of the Jin River.[7] Muslim traders reached the city early on in its existence, along with their existing trade at Guangzhou and Yangzhou.[30]
Map of Qingyuan CircuitMap showing the location of Qingyuan Circuit
In the early period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Quanzhou was a part of Min state. After Min was destroyed by the Southern Tang, the Qingyuan Circuit rose up in the original southern territory of Min. The Qingyuan Circuit was a de facto independent entity that lasted 29 years (949-978) with 4 rulers. Its territory included present-day southern Fujian and Putian, with Quanzhou as its capital. Its founder, Liu Congxiao, the Prince of Jinjiang and Jiedushi (military governor) of Qingyuan Circuit, vigorously expanded overseas trade and city development. Erythrina trees were planted throughout Quanzhou city, so Quanzhou was called Erythrina City.[31][32] In 964, the circuit was renamed the Pinghai Circuit. In 978, Chen Hongjin, the Jiedushi of Pinghai Circuit, was forced to surrender to the Northern Song to avoid war and ravage.[33]
Song dynasty
Already connected to inland Fujian by roads and canals, Quanzhou grew to international importance in the first century of the Northern Song.[34] It received an office of the maritime trade bureau (shibosi, 市舶司) in 1079[35] or 1087[16][36] and functioned as the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road into the Yuan, eclipsing both the overland trade routes[37] and Guangzhou. A 1095 inscription records two convoys, each of twenty ships, arriving from the Southern Seas each year.[34] Quanzhou's maritime trade developed the area's ceramics, sugar, alcohol, and salt industries.[34] Ninety per cent of Fujian's ceramic production at the time was jade-colored celadon, produced for export.[38]Frankincense was such a coveted import that promotions for the trade superintendents at Guangzhou and Quanzhou were tied to the amount they were able to bring in during their terms in office.[39] During this period it was one of the world's largest and most cosmopolitan seaports.[d] By 1120, its prefecture claimed a population of around 500,000.[40] Its Luoyang Bridge was formerly the most celebrated bridge in China[7] and the 12th century Anping Bridge is also well known.
Trade routes in Southeast Asia during Quanzhou's heyday.
In 1277 under the MongolianYuan dynasty a superintendent of foreign trade was established in the city.[46] The superintendent Pu Shougeng was Muslim[47] and used his contacts to restore the city's trade under its new rulers.[46] He was broadly successful, restoring much of the port's former greatness.[48] His office became hereditary to his descendants.[46]
Into the 1280s Quanzhou sometimes served as the provincial capital for Fujian.[10][e] Its population was around 455,000 in 1283, the major items of trade being pepper and other spices, gemstones, pearls, and porcelain.[16]
Marco Polo recorded that the Yuan emperors derived "a vast revenue" from their 10 percent duty on the port's commerce;[49] he called Quanzhou's port "one of the two greatest havens in the world for commerce"[49] and "the Alexandria of the East".[50]Ibn Battuta simply called it the greatest port in the world.[10][f] Polo noted its tattoo artists were famed throughout Southeast Asia.[49] It was the point of departure for Marco Polo's 1292 return expedition, escorting the 17-year-old Mongolian princess Kököchin to her fiancé in the PersianIlkhanate;[51] a few decades later, it was the point of arrival and departure for Ibn Battuta.[12][41][g]Kublai Khan's invasions of Japan[16][41][52] and Java sailed primarily from its port.[53] The Islamic geographer Abulfeda noted, in c. 1321, that its city walls remained ruined from its conquest by the Mongols.[8] In the mid-1320s Friar Odoric noted the town's two Franciscan friaries, but admitted the Buddhist monasteries were much larger, with over 3000 monks in one.[8]
Between 1357 and 1367 the Yisibaxi Muslim Persian garrison started the Ispah rebellion against the Yuan dynasty in Quanzhou and southern Fujian due to increasingly anti-Muslim laws. Persian militia leaders Sayf ad-Din [zh] (賽甫丁) and Amir ad-Din [zh] (阿迷里丁) led the revolt. Arabic official Yawuna [zh] (那兀纳) assassinated Amir ad-Din in 1362 and took control of the Muslim rebel forces. The Muslim rebels tried to strike north and took over some parts of Xinghua but were defeated at Fuzhou. Yuan provincial loyalist forces from Fuzhou defeated the Muslim rebels in 1367.[54] Sayf ad-Din and Amir ad-Din fought for Fuzhou and Xinghua for five years. They both were murdered by another Muslim called Nawuna in 1362 so he then took control of Quanzhou and the Ispah garrison for five more years until his defeat by the Yuan authorities.[55]
Nawuna was killed in turn by Chen Youding. Chen began a campaign of persecution against the city's Sunni community—including massacres and grave desecration—that eventually became a three-days anti-foreign massacre. Emigrants fleeing the persecution rose to prominent positions throughout Southeast Asia, spurring the development of Islam on Java and elsewhere.[47] The Yuan were expelled in 1368,[16] and they turned against Pu Shougeng's family and the Muslims and slaughtered Pu Shougeng's descendants in the Ispah rebellion. Mosques and other buildings with foreign architecture were almost all destroyed and the Yuan imperial soldiers killed most of the descendants of Pu Shougeng and mutilated their corpses.[56]
Ming and early Qing dynasties
The Ming discouraged foreign commerce other than formal tributary missions. By 1473 trade had declined to the point that Quanzhou was no longer the headquarters of the imperial customs service for Fujian.[41] The Wokou, who came from many different ethnicities, including Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, forced Quanzhou's Superintendency of Trade to close completely in 1522.[57]
During the Qing dynasty the Sea Ban did not help the city's traders or fishermen. They were forced to abandon their access to the sea for years at a time and coastal farmers forced to relocate miles inland to inner counties like Yongchun and Anxi. Violent large scale clan fights with the thousands of non-native families from Guangdong who were deported to Quanzhou city by the Qing immediately occurred.[58]
19th century to present day
Reconstructed Linzhang Gate
In the 19th century, the city walls still protected a circuit of 7–8 miles (11–13 km) but embraced much vacant ground.[7] The bay began to attract Jardines' and Dents'opium ships from 1832. Following the First Opium War, GovernorHenry Pottinger proposed using Quanzhou as an official opium depot to keep the trade out of Hong Kong and the other treaty ports but the rents sought by the imperial commissioner Qiying were too high.[57]
When Chinese pirates overran the receiving ships in Shenhu Bay to capture their stockpiles of silverbullion in 1847, however, the traders moved to Quanzhou Bay regardless.[57] Around 1862, a Protestantmission was set up in Quanzhou. As late as the middle of the century, large Chinese junks could still access the town easily, trading in tea, sugar, tobacco, porcelain, and nankeens,[7] but sand bars created by the rivers around the town had generally incapacitated its harbor by the First World War. It remained a large and prosperous city, but conducted its maritime trade through Anhai.[4]
*Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China ("Mainland China") has claimed the Kinmen Islands (Quemoy) as part of Quanzhou but has never controlled them; they are administered by and also claimed by the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Locals speak the Quanzhou variety of Min Nan essentially the same as the Amoy dialect spoken in Xiamen, and similar to South East Asian Hokkien and Taiwanese. It is unintelligible with Mandarin. Many overseas Chinese whose ancestors came from the Quanzhou area, especially those in Southeast Asia, often speak mainly Hokkien at home. Around the "Southern Min triangle area," which includes Quanzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou, locals all speak Minnan languages. The dialects they speak are similar but have different intonations.
Historically Quanzhou exported black tea, camphor, sugar, indigo, tobacco, ceramics, cloth made of grass, and minerals. As of 1832 Quanzhou imported, primarily from Guangzhou, wool cloth, wine, and watches. The East India Company was exporting an estimated £150,000 a year in black tea from Quanzhou.[63]
Its GDP ranked first in Fujian Province for 20 years from 1991 to 2010. In 2008 Quanzhou's textile and apparel production accounted for 10 percent of China's overall apparel production, stone exports account for 50 percent of Chinese stone exports, resin handicraft exports account for 70 percent of the country's total, ceramic exports account for 67 percent of the country's total, candy production accounts for 20 percent, and the production of sport and tourism shoes accounts for 80% of Chinese, and 20 percent of world production.
Quanzhou is known today as China's shoe city. Quanzhou's 3,000 shoe factories produce 500 million pairs a year, making nearly one in every four pairs of sneakers made in China.
Cars
Quanzhou is the biggest automotive market in Fujian. It has the highest rate of private automobile possession.[65] Quanzhou is connected by major roads from Fuzhou to the north and Xiamen to the south.
Quanzhou is an important transport hub within southeastern Fujian province. Many export industries in the Fujian interior cities will transport goods to Quanzhou ports. Quanzhou Port was one of the most prosperous port in Tang dynasty and is now still an important Chinese port for exporting.
There is a passenger ferry terminal in Shijing, Nan'an, Fujian, with regular service to the Shuitou Port in the ROC-controlled Kinmen Island.
Airport
Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport is Quanzhou region's airport, served by passenger flights within Fujian province and other destinations throughout the country.
Railway
The Zhangping–Quanzhou–Xiaocuo railway connects several cargo stations within Quanzhou Prefecture with the interior of Fujian and the rest of the country. Until 2014 this line also had passenger service, with fairly slow passenger trains from Beijing.
Passenger trains from China terminated at the Quanzhou East Railway Station, a few kilometers northeast of the center of the city. Passenger service on this line was terminated, and Quanzhou East railway station closed 9 December 2014.[66]
Since 2010 Quanzhou is served by the high-speed Fuzhou–Xiamen railway, part of the Hangzhou–Fuzhou–Shenzhen high-speed railway, which runs along China's southeastern sea coast. High-speed trains on this line stop at Quanzhou railway station (in Beifeng Subdistrict of Fengze District, some 10 miles north of Quanzhou city center) and Jinjiang railway station. Trains to Xiamen take under 45 minutes, making it a convenient weekend or day trip. By 2015 direct high-speed service has become available to a number of cities in the country's interior, from Beijing to Chongqing and Guiyang.
Long-distance bus
Long-distance bus services also run daily/nightly to Shenzhen and other major cities. Quanzhou bus station operated from 1990 to 2020.
Notable Historical and cultural sites (the 18 views of Quanzhou as recommended by the Fujian tourism board) include the Ashab Mosque and Kaiyuan Temple mentioned above, as well as:
Qing Yuan mountain (清源山) - The tallest hill within the city limits, which hosts a great view of West lake.
East Lake Park (东湖) - Located in the city center. It is home to a small zoo.
West Lake Park (西湖公园) - The largest body of fresh water within the city limits.
Scholar Street (状元街) - Champion street about 500 meters long, elegant environment, mainly engaged in tourism and cultural crafts.
Notable Modern cultural sites include:
Fengze Square - Located in the city center and acts as a venue for shows and events.
Dapingshan - The second tallest hill within the city limits, crowned with an enormous equestrian statue of Zheng Chenggong.
The Embassy Lounge - Situated in the "1916 Cultural Ideas Zone" which acts as a platform for mixing traditional Chinese art with modern building techniques and designs[67]
Relics from Quanzhou's past are preserved at the Maritime[50] or Overseas-Relations History Museum.[68] It includes large exhibits on Song-era ships and Yuan-era tombstones.[50] A particularly important exhibit is the so-called Quanzhou ship, a seagoing junk that sunk some time after 1272 and was recovered in 1973–74.[68]
The old city center preserves "balcony buildings" (骑楼; qílóu), a style of southern Chinese architecture from the Republican Era.[50]
The Ding or Ting family of Chendai in Quanzhou claims descent from the Muslim leader Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar through his son Nasr al-Din or Nasruddin (Chinese: Nasulading).[72] The Dings have branches in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia among the Chinese communities there, no longer practicing Islam but still maintaining a Hui identity. The deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Muslim Association on Taiwan, Ishag Ma (馬孝棋) has claimed "Sayyid is an honorable title given to descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, hence Sayyid Shamsuddin must be connected to Prophet Mohammed". The Ding family in Taisi Township in Yunlin County of Taiwan, traces descent from him through the Ding of Quanzhou in Fujian.[73] Nasruddin was appointed governor in Karadjang and retained his position in Yunnan till his death, which Rashid, writing about 1300, says occurred five or six years before. (According to the History of Yuan, "Nasulading" died in 1292.) Nasruddin's son Abubeker, who had the surname Bayan Fenchan (evidently the Boyen ch'a-r of the Yüan shi), was governor in Zaitun at the time Rashid wrote. He bore also his grandfather's title of Sayid Edjell and was Minister of Finance under Kublai's successor.[74] Nasruddin is mentioned by Marco Polo, who styles him "Nescradin".[75][76][77]
^Zaiton's identification with Quanzhou was controversial in the 19th century, with some scholars preferring to associate Polo and Ibn Battuta's great port with the much more attractive harbor at Xiamen on a variety of pretexts. The Chinese records are, however, clear as to Quanzhou's former status and the earlier excellence of its harbor, which slowly silted up over the centuries. Alternative spellings include Zeiton and Zaytun.
^Zhangzhou itself is named for its former status as the seat of the imperial Chinese Zhang River Prefecture.
^Among other testaments to this age are tombstones which have been found written in Chinese, Arabic, Syriac, and Latin.[16]
^It was considered so important by the Jesuits that they sometimes called all of Fujian Chinheo.[7] In 1515 Giovanni d'Empoli mistakenly recorded that "Zeiton" was the seat of the "Great Can" who ruled China[41] but Quanzhou never served as an imperial capital.
^Notwithstanding the derivation of Zayton from Quanzhou's old nickname "City of the Tung Trees", some details of Ibn Battuta's description suggest he was referring to Zhangzhou.[10]
^Quanzhou was also the probable point of departure for the Franciscan friar John of Marignolli around the same time but this is uncertain given the partial nature of the record of his time in China.
^2019年泉州市国民经济和社会发展统计公报 (in Simplified Chinese). Quanzhou Municipal Statistic Bureau. 30 March 2020. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
^ abcdefghAllaire, Gloria (2000). "Zaiton". Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN9781135590949.
^Goodrich, L. Carrington (1957). "Recent Discoveries at Zayton". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 77 (77): 161–5. doi:10.2307/596349. JSTOR596349.
^ abcWade, Geoff (2015). "Chinese Engagement with the Indian Ocean during the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties (Tenth to Sixteenth Centuries)". In Pearson, Michael (ed.). Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 72. ISBN9781137566249.
^ abWade, Geoff (2012). Geoff Wade; Li Tana (eds.). Anthony Reid and the Study of the Southeast Asian Past. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 131. ISBN9789814311960.
^Rossabi, Morris (26 April 2012). The Mongols: A Very Short Introduction. p. 111. ISBN9780199840892.
^Sen, Tan Ta; Dasheng, Chen (2009). Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 186. ISBN9789812308375.
^Liu 刘, Yingsheng 迎胜 (2008). "Muslim Merchants in Mongol Yuan China". In Schottenhammer, Angela (ed.). The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration. East Asian economic and socio-cultural studies: East Asian maritime history. Vol. 6. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 121. ISBN9783447058094. ISSN1860-1812.
^Chaffee, John W. (2018). The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China: The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750–1400. Cambridge University Press. p. 157. ISBN9781108640091.
^Kauz, Ralph (2010). "A Kāzarūnī Network?". Aspects of the Maritime Silk Road: From the Persian Gulf to the East China Sea. East Asian Maritime History. Vol. 10. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 65. ISBN9783447061032.
.svg)
8.0% (Total), 7.4% (Per capita)
.jpg)
