Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, People's Republic of China.[a] It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, with an area of 11,245 square kilometers (4,342 sq mi) and a population of 8,782,285 as of the 2020 census. Its built-up area is home to 6,669,711 inhabitants, encompassing the Licheng, Fengze, and Luojiang urban districts; Jinjiang, Nan'an, and Shishi cities; Hui'an County; and the Quanzhou District for Taiwanese Investment. Quanzhou was China's 12th-largest extended metropolitan area in 2010.
For other uses, see Quanzhou (disambiguation).
Quanzhou
泉州市Chinchew
Kang Tao
Wang Yongli
11,218.91 km2 (4,331.65 sq mi)
872.4 km2 (336.8 sq mi)
4,274.5 km2 (1,650.4 sq mi)
8,782,285
780/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
1,728,386
2,000/km2 (5,100/sq mi)
6,669,711
1,600/km2 (4,000/sq mi)
CN¥ 115,768
US$ 18,180
0595
闽C
Choân-chiu
Chinchew
Quánzhōu
Quánzhōu
Ch'üan2-chou1
Choân-chiu
Tsuân-tsiu
Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China
Cultural
iv
2021 (44th session)
Quanzhou was China's major port for foreign traders, who knew it as Zaiton,[b] during the 11th through 14th centuries. It was visited by both Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta; both travelers praised it as one of the most prosperous and glorious cities in the world. It was the naval base from which the Mongol attacks on Japan and Java were primarily launched and a cosmopolitan center with Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches, including a Catholic cathedral and Franciscan friaries. A failed revolt prompted a massacre of the city's foreign communities in 1357. Economic dislocations—including piracy and an imperial overreaction to it during the Ming and Qing—reduced its prosperity, with Japanese trade shifting to Ningbo and Zhapu and other foreign trade restricted to Guangzhou. Quanzhou became an opium-smuggling center in the 19th century but the siltation of its harbor hindered trade by larger ships.
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" was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021.[3]
Names[edit]
Quanzhou (also known as Zayton or Zaiton in British and American historical sources) is the atonal pinyin romanization of the city's Chinese name 泉州, using its pronunciation in the Mandarin dialect. 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 local Hokkien pronunciation.
The Postal Map name of the city was "Chinchew",[15] an English variant of Chincheo, which is also the historical Spanish, Portuguese (and later also Dutch and French) name for the city. The exact etymon of the term is uncertain with multiple explanations on the matter. Historically, "Chincheo" or also "Chengchio" or "Chenchiu" was likely a name that originally referred to neighboring Zhangzhou, due to the name generally being used by European sailors to denote the Bay of Amoy and its hinterland, or even the whole Fujian province.[16] The confusion is also discussed by Charles R. Boxer (1953)[17] and the 1902 Encyclopedia[18] in that it is apparently the transcription of the local Quanzhou Hokkien pronunciation of the name of Zhangzhou,[16][c] Quanzhou Hokkien Chinese: 漳州; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Cheng-chiu; lit. 'Zhangzhou' (IPA: /t͡ɕiɪŋ³³ t͡ɕiu³³/),[d] the major Fujianese port in the 16th and 17th centuries, specifically the old port of Yuegang in Haicheng, Zhangzhou, trading with Spanish Manila and Portuguese Macao.[7] It is uncertain when exactly and why Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and later also British and French sailors first applied the name to Quanzhou, but perhaps there were initially some confusion due to miscommunication on first language contact by European sailors with Hokkien speakers around the Bay of Amoy, which the term later stuck and continued due to the language barrier among Hokkien speakers and those who do not speak the language. Another by Duncan (1902) claims that it comes from a supposed previous "Tsuien-chow" Mandarin romanization[19] (Mandarin Chinese: 泉州; pinyin: Quánzhōu; IPA: /t͡ɕʰy̯ɛn³⁵ ʈ͡ʂoʊ̯⁵⁵/). In the Chineesch-Hollandsch Woordenboek van het Emoi dialekt (1882), a Hokkien-Dutch Dictionary from Dutch Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) of the Dutch East Indies, the name of the Quanzhou dialect of Hokkien is transcribed as the "Tsin-tsiu dialekt".[20] It is uncertain which term they transcribed "Tsin-tsiu" from, specifically the first syllable, unless it was simply their attempt at giving a Hokkien term to explain the origins of "Chincheo". On that regard though, as part of Quanzhou prefecture and directly adjacent from the historic city of Quanzhou over the Jin River lies Jinjiang, called in Hokkien Chinese: 晉江; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chìn-kang; Tâi-lô: Tsìn-kang, which is now also a county-level city. The now county-level city of Jinjiang (Hokkien: 晉江; Chìn-kang) has the exact same name in Hokkien as the Jin River (Hokkien: 晉江; Chìn-kang; IPA: /t͡sin⁵⁵⁴ kaŋ³³/), directly in between the historic city of Quanzhou to its west and to the north of Jinjiang, which both the river and the county-level city got their name from the Jin dynasty (晉朝)[21] from when the earliest Min-speaking Chinese settlers coming from the Min River area settled the banks of the Jin River around 284 AD.[22] Zhou (州) or at least Hokkien Chinese: 州 / 洲; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chiu originally referred to alluvial islands in the middle of rivers or at the mouth of rivers,[23] which can somewhat geographically describe the historic city of Quanzhou's geographic position in between the Jin River and the Luoyang River. Similarly, Zhangzhou (漳州; Chiang-chiu) is also named with Hokkien Chinese: 州; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chiu with Hokkien Chinese: 漳; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chiang referring to Hokkien Chinese: 漳江; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chiang-kang, which is the old name of the Jiulong River (Hokkien: 九龍江; Kiú-liông-kang) that surrounds the historic city of Zhangzhou.
Its Arabic name Zaiton[24] or "Zayton"[25] (Arabic: زيتون, lit. 'olive (fruit or tree)'), once popular in English, means "[City] of Olives" and is a calque of Quanzhou's former Chinese epithet, Hokkien Chinese: 刺桐城; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chhì-tông Siâⁿ or Mandarin Chinese: 刺桐城; pinyin: Cìtóng Chéng; lit. 'thorny tung tree city', which is derived from the avenues of tung oil-bearing tung trees ordered to be planted around the city by the city's 10th-century ruler Liu Congxiao.[26][27] Variant transcriptions from the Arabic name include Caiton,[28] Çaiton,[28] Çayton,[28] Zaytún,[12] Zaitûn,[7] Zaitún,[8] and Zaitūn.[26] The etymology of satin derives from "Zaitun". [30][31][32]
Cars[edit]
Quanzhou is the biggest automotive market in Fujian. It has the highest rate of private automobile possession.[73] Quanzhou is connected by major roads from Fuzhou to the north and Xiamen to the south.
Colleges and universities with Undergraduate education:
Vocational school:
Quanzhou is listed as one of the 24 famous historic cultural cities first approved by the Chinese government. Notable cultural practices include:
The city hosted the Sixth National Peasants' Games in 2008. Signature local dishes include rice dumplings and oyster omelettes.[58]
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:
Notable Modern cultural sites include:
Relics from Quanzhou's past are preserved at the Maritime[58] or Overseas-Relations History Museum.[76] It includes large exhibits on Song-era ships and Yuan-era tombstones.[58] 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.[76]
The old city center preserves "balcony buildings" (骑楼; qílóu), a style of southern Chinese architecture from the Republican Era.[58]
Quanzhou Tianhou Temple
Quanzhou Zhenwu Temple
