Atlas of China
Quanzhou 泉州Quánzhōu
Twin stone pagodas, a mosque founded in 1009 and Mazu's temple by the old port
About Quanzhou
Foreign traders knew Quanzhou as Zaitun, a port that Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta both praised as one of the greatest in the world, and in 2021 its Song and Yuan trading sites joined the World Heritage list. The old city holds Kaiyuan Temple with its twin stone pagodas, the Qingjing Mosque and Tianhou Temple; beyond it lie the stone Luoyang Bridge and Anping Bridge and a giant Laozi carved from a boulder. Inland, Anxi grows Tieguanyin oolong and Dehua makes white porcelain.
What to eat in Quanzhou
- Tieguanyin oolong (铁观音)
- Thick misua noodle soup (面线糊)
Listed sites in Quanzhou
53 listed sites are in Quanzhou. These are the 19 rated 5A or 4A; see all 53 in the Fujian list.
- Mount Qingyuan 清源山 5A scenic area
A granite hill range on the northern edge of Quanzhou, protected as a national scenic area and scattered with shrines, hundreds of cliff inscriptions and Song–Yuan stone statues. - Anping Bridge 安平桥 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A granite beam bridge more than 2 km long across a tidal inlet between Anhai and Shuitou, completed in 1151 after 13 years' work and regarded as the longest ancient stone bridge surviving in China; its length gave it its other name, the Five-Li Bridge. - Baogai Mountain 宝盖山 4A scenic area · on the map
A granite hill about 209 m high on the eastern edge of Shishi, the highest in the city, crowned by Wanshou Pagoda, popularly the Gusao (Sisters-in-Law) Pagoda: a hollow five-storey octagonal stone pagoda about 22 m high, built in the Shaoxing era (1131–1162) as a landmark for ships, with stairs inside its walls. - Beixi Wenyuan Eco-Tourism Area 北溪文苑 4A scenic area · on the map
A rural eco-tourism area in Beixi village, Hushan town, set in a wooded valley with streams and waterfalls. - China Museum for Fujian-Taiwan Kinship 中国闽台缘博物馆 4A scenic area
A large state museum opened in 2006 on the historical ties between Fujian and Taiwan, in a red-brick and white-stone building whose four long flights of steps climb to a roof terrace over the city. - Chongwu Ancient City 崇武古城 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A granite-walled coastal garrison town built from 1387 to defend the coast against wokou pirates, regarded as the most complete stone sea-wall town surviving in China. - Jiuxian Mountain, Dehua 九仙山 4A scenic area · on the map
A mountain of about 1,650 m in northern Dehua, on the meeting point of Chishui, Shangyong and Daming townships, with a scenic area of about 35 km² known for rime ice on its trees in winter. - Kaiyuan Temple (Quanzhou) 开元寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Quanzhou's principal Buddhist temple, founded in 686 on West Street in the old city and covering some 7.8 hectares, is one of the components of the Quanzhou World Heritage site. - Niumulin Eco-Tourism Area 牛姆林 4A scenic area · on the map
A forested mountain eco-tourism area in Xiayang town in the far west of Yongchun, described by the county as one of the best-preserved native forests in Fujian, with several waterfalls along its paths. - Qingshuiyan Temple 清水岩 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A mountain temple in Penglai town, Anxi, where the Northern Song monk Qingshui Zushi practised, and the mother temple of his cult, which spread with emigrants to Taiwan and South-East Asia. - Quanzhou Museum 泉州博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
The city museum, opened in 2005 in a large building in southern Fujian style at the foot of Mount Qingyuan, north of West Lake Park. - Quanzhou Oulebao Ocean Kingdom 泉州欧乐堡海洋王国 4A scenic area · on the map
A seaside theme-park complex at Zhangban on the northern shore of Quanzhou Bay, made up of three parks: a water park, an ocean park with marine-life exhibits and staged shows, and a fairy-tale park with rides. - Shiniu Mountain 石牛山 4A scenic area · on the map
A granite mountain in Shuikou town, north-eastern Dehua, named after a great rock on it that looks like a bull, and protected as a national forest park and national geopark. - Wudianshi Historic Quarter 五店市 4A scenic area · on the map
A restored historic quarter in central Jinjiang, said to be named after five shops opened here by the Cai clan in the Tang dynasty, with more than 130 Ming, Qing and early modern buildings: red-brick houses, Western-influenced 'fanzai' houses, ancestral halls and temples. - Wulin Traditional Village 梧林传统村落 4A scenic area · on the map
A 600-year-old home village of emigrants to the Philippines and South-East Asia in Xintang, Jinjiang, with 132 historic buildings: red-brick southern Fujian mansions next to Gothic and Roman-style villas and hybrid 'fanzai' houses that returning emigrants built mainly in the 1930s. - Xiheshan Tieguanyin Culture Park 溪禾山铁观音文化园 4A scenic area · on the map
A tea-themed leisure park on the edge of Anxi town built around Tieguanyin, the oolong tea for which Anxi is famous, and rated 4A in 2022. - Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum 英良石材自然历史博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A museum founded by a local stone merchant near Shuitou, the stone-trading town of Nan'an, in a modern building conceived like a book of stone pages. - Yuanhe 1916 Creative Industry Park 源和1916创意产业园 4A scenic area · on the map
A creative park in former factory buildings on Xinmen Street at the western edge of Quanzhou's old city, centred on the Yuanhe Tang candied-fruit works founded in 1916 and later joined by neighbouring flour, television and jute mills. - Yunlonggu Gorge 云龙谷 4A scenic area · on the map
A gorge scenic area in Foling village, Guobao township, on the southern slopes of the Daiyun Mountains near Jiuxian Mountain, named after its long winding valley and a small temple, Yunlong Palace.
On the map
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