Quanzhou
Quanzhou was the largest port in the world in the Song and Yuan, and the old town keeps the evidence: a Tang Buddhist temple, a Song mosque, Manichaean and Hindu carvings, and a living street culture of temple fairs and noodle stalls. Half an hour from Xiamen and almost no foreign visitors.
- Region
- Fujian, East
- Best months
- Oct–Apr
- Airports
- JJN
- Suggested stay
- 2 days
Overview
Zaytun, as Arab traders called it, sent silk and porcelain out and took in every religion that arrived by sea. UNESCO listed the whole trading system in 2021, and the sites are scattered through a town that has not been tidied up for tourists: incense in the lanes, opera on temple stages, scooters everywhere.
West Street and the Kaiyuan Temple are the centre of it. From there everything is walkable, in red-brick lanes with swallowtail roof ridges. Go out to Xunpu, where the women wear flowers in their hair and the houses are built from oyster shells, and to the Luoyang Bridge, a Song stone causeway across an estuary.
Quanzhou is hot and humid from May to September. Winter is mild and the best time to walk.
Getting there
Quanzhou station is on the coastal high-speed line, ten kilometres north of the old town: Xiamen North in about half an hour, Fuzhou an hour, Shanghai around five and a half. Jinjiang (JJN) airport is half an hour south with domestic flights; most people fly to Xiamen.
Rail tip. Your passport is your ticket. Book on 12306 or Trip.com, then go straight to the gate. See Getting around.
Where to stay
West Street and the old town
西街·古城Lanes around the Kaiyuan Temple. Guesthouses in old brick houses. The place to be.
Everything in the old town is within twenty minutes on foot. Ask for a room away from West Street itself, which is loud in the evening.
Fengze
丰泽The newer district toward the station. Bigger hotels, less character.
Close to the high-speed station and the bus routes. A short taxi to the old town.
Things to do
Kaiyuan Temple
开元寺A Tang temple with twin stone pagodas and Hindu carvings on the pillars. Free.
West Street
西街The old high street, red brick and snack stalls, with lanes worth every detour.
Qingjing Mosque
清净寺A mosque from 1009 in Arab style, roofless and quiet. The oldest in China.
Xunpu village
蟳埔村A fishing village of oyster-shell houses where the women wear rings of fresh flowers.
Luoyang Bridge
洛阳桥A Song stone bridge across an estuary, its piers grown with oysters on purpose.
Maritime Museum
泉州海外交通史博物馆Tombstones in Arabic, Syriac and Latin, and a Song sea-going ship. Free.
Eat
Mianxian hu (rice-vermicelli paste with your choice of toppings) is breakfast; ginger duck and oyster omelette are dinner. Runbing spring rolls, satay noodles, sticky-rice wuxiang rolls and sifang tang iced fruit soup fill the gaps. The stalls around Kaiyuan Temple and along Zhongshan Road are where the town eats.
From travellers in Quanzhou
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