Quanzhou History and Culture

Quanzhou is the famous cultural ancient city and the homeland of the overseas Chinese. In Southern Sung and Yuan dynasty, Quanzhou was the biggest foreign trading port in our country. Like the Alexander Port, Quanzhou Port is called one of the four biggest ports in the world.

In the New Stone Age, people have lived here. In Western Chou ( 11th century---771B.C. ) ,Quanzhou was called "the seven Mins land". In Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period, Quanzhou belonged to Yue country. In the ninth year of Sui dynasty ( 589 ), Quanzhou got its name. Quanzhou is the hub of communications for abroad, it is the beginning of "the Silk Road on Sea". In Song dynasty and Yuan dynasty, the level of shipbuilding had reached the advanced level in the world.

The culture in Quanzhou is developing, and there are a lot of talented people. So it is called the Seaside Zou and Lu. In the history, there were many writers, scientists, thinkers, artists and national heroes in Quanzhou.

In the northeastern of Quanzhou, there is Luoyang Bridge. It was built from 1053 to 1059. This engineering is hard and gigantic. The workers who were leaded by a person named Caixiang spent nearly 7 years on building it. People used two ways to build it. One was growing oysters to strong the base. The other was making the base as raft style. Luoyang Bridge is the pioneering work in the world and it is one of the four famous bridges in China. Also, it is the first stone bridge in the seaport.

Kaiyuan Temple lies in the West Street in Quanzhou. It is the largest Buddhist building in Fujian, and it was built in 686.

The local opera of Quanzhou has a long history. There is a lot of traditional work of art. Among them, there is South Music, Liyuan Opera, Puppet Show carried by strings and Puppet Show carried in hand, etc. Puppet Show carried by strings is a kind of famous folk art; it is famous for its lifelike model. And because of it, Quanzhou is called the homeland of puppet show.

The traditional handicrafts are puppet head, bamboo work, porcelain, stone caving, wood caving and embroidery. The specialties are tea and candied fruits.