Fujian China Travel Guide 

Fujian (Chinese: 福建; pinyin: Fújiàn; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal map spelling: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan or Taiwanese: Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of China. Fujian borders Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait. The name Fujian comes from the combination of Fuzhou and Jian'ou, two cities in Fujian. The name was coined during Tang Dynasty.

Most of Fujian is administered by the People's Republic of China. However, the archipelagos of Kinmen (Chinese: 金门; pinyin: Jīnmén) and Matsu (Chinese: 马祖; pinyin: Măzŭ) are under the control of the Republic of China based in Taiwan. Thus, there are two provinces (in the sense of government organizations; Fujian and Fujian) with the same name.

History

Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian (especially the northern coastal region around Fuzhou) had entered the Neolithic Age by the middle of the 6th millennium BC. From the Keqiutou site (7450-5590 BP), an early Neolithic site in Pingtan Island located about 70 km southeast of Fuzhou, numerous tools made of stones, shells, bones, jades, and ceramics (including wheel-made-ceramics) have been unearthed, together with spinning wheels, a definitive evidence of weaving.

The Tanshishan (昙石山) site (5500-4000 BP) in suburban Fuzhou spans the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age where semi-underground circular buildings were found in the lower level. The Huangtulun (黄土崙) site (ca.1325 BC), also in suburban Fuzhou, was of the Bronze Age in character.

These findings, however, also indicate that the agricultural tradition was weak if not lacking in this area, which is consistent with the early records stating that the indigenous people in Fujian, primarily those living along the Min River, were Austronesians with "large eyes, flat nose and tattooed bodies"[citation needed], who made their living by fishing.

These people were probably the original inhabitants of southern China. Some of them may have been assimilated, driven further south, or exiled during Han Dynasty to eastern China (north of present-day Shanghai).

For the Han Chinese, this area was also known as Minyue. The word "Mǐnyuè" was derived by combining "Mǐn" (閩/闽; POJ: bân), perhaps an ethnic name and associated with the Chinese word for barbarians (蠻/蛮; pinyin: mán; POJ: bân), and "Yue", after the State of Yue, a Spring and Autumn Period kingdom in Zhejiang Province to the north. This is because the royal family of Yuè fled to Fujian after their kingdom was annexed by the State of Chu in 306 BC. Mǐn is also the name of the main river in this area, but the ethnonym is probably earlier.

Minyue was a de facto kingdom until the emperor of Qin Dynasty, the first unified imperial Chinese state, abolished the status. In the aftermath of the fall of the Qin Dynasty, however, civil war broke out between two warlords, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang; the Minyue king Wuzhu sent his troops to fight side-by-side with Liu Bang, and his gamble paid off. Liu Bang was victorious, and founded the Han Dynasty; in 202 BC he restored Minyue's status as a tributary independent kingdom. Thus Wuzhu was allowed to construct his fortified city in Fuzhou as well as a few locations in the Wuyi Mountains, which have been excavated in recent years. His kingdom extended beyond the borders of contemporary Fujian into eastern Guangdong, eastern Jiangxi, and southern Zhejiang. By this time Minyue was being sinicized and had a combination of aboriginal (possibly Austronesian) and Han Chinese elements.

After the death of Wuzhu, Minyue maintained its militant tradition and launched several expeditions against their neighboring kingdoms in Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, mostly in the 2nd century BC, only to be stopped by the Han Dynasty. The Han emperor eventually decided to get rid of the potential threat by sending in large forces simultaneously from four directions via land and sea in 111 BC. The rulers in Fuzhou surrendered to avoid a futile fight and destruction; thus the first kingdom in Fujian history came to an abrupt end. Nonetheless, the people of northern Fujian still erect temples in memory of their first kings.

The Han Dynasty collapsed at the end of the 2nd century AD, paving the way for the Three Kingdoms era. Sun Quan, the founder of the Kingdom of Wu, spent nearly twenty years subduing the Shan Yue people, the branch of the Yue people living in mountains.

The first wave of immigration of the noble class arrived in the province in the early 4th century AD when the Western Jin Dynasty collapsed and the north was torn apart by invasions by nomadic peoples from the north, as well as civil war. These immigrants were primarily from eight families in central China: Lin (林), Huang (黄), Chen (陈), Zheng (郑), Zhan (詹), Qiu (邱), He (何), and Hu (胡)[citation needed]. The first four remain as the major surnames of modern Fujian.

Nevertheless, isolation from nearby areas owing to rugged terrain contributed to Fujian's relatively backward economy and level of development, despite major population boost from northern China during the "barbarian" invasions. Population density in Fujian remained low compared to the rest of China. Only two commanderies and sixteen counties were established by the Western Jin Dynasty. Like other southern provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan, Fujian often served as a destination for exiled prisoners and dissidents at that time.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties era, the Southern Dynasties reigned south of the Yangtze River. Their sovereigns put significant efforts into populating the area with Han Chinese.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907) oversaw the next golden age of China. As the Tang Dynasty ended, China was torn apart in the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. During this time, a second major wave of immigration arrived in the safe haven of Fujian, led by general Wang, who set up an independent Kingdom of Min with its capital in Fuzhou. After the death of the founding king, however, the kingdom suffered from internal strife, and was soon swallowed up by Southern Tang, another southern kingdom.

Quanzhou was blooming into a seaport under the reign of the Min Kingdom, and may have been the largest seaport in the Eastern hemisphere. In the early Ming dynasty, Quanzhou was the staging area and supply depot of Zheng He's naval expeditions. Further development was severely hampered by the sea trade ban of the Ming Dynasty, and the area was superseded by nearby ports of Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai despite the lifting of the ban in 1550. Large scale piracy by Wokou (Japanese pirates) was eventually wiped out by Chinese military and Japanese authority of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Late Ming and early Qing Dynasty symbolized an era of large influx of refugees and another 20 years of sea trade ban under the Kangxi Emperor, a measure intended to counter the refuge Ming government of Koxinga in Taiwan. Incoming refugees, however, did not translate into a major labor force owing to their re-migration into prosperous regions of Guangdong province. In 1689, the Qing dynasty officially incorporated Taiwan into Fujian province. Settlement of Taiwan by Han Chinese followed, and the majority of people in Taiwan are descendants of emigrants from Southern Fujian. After Taiwan was separated into its own province in 1885 and ceded to Japan in 1895, Fujian arrived at its present extent. It was substantially influenced by the Japanese after the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 until the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) of WWII.

Owing to the mountainous landscape, Fujian was the most secluded province of the PRC in eastern China due to the lack of rail and underdeveloped networks of paved roads before the 1950s. The first railway to the province was completed in mid-1950s connecting Xiamen to the rest of the mainland. Despite its secluded location, Fujian has had a strong academic tradition since the Southern Song Dynasty. At the time, north China was occupied by the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, which caused a shift of the cultural center of China to the south, benefiting Fuzhou and other southern cities. In the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering, there are more members from Fuzhou than from any other city[citation needed]. In addition, it should also be pointed out that the slow development of Fujian in its early days has proven a blessing for the province's ecology; today, the province has the highest forest coverage rate and the most diverse biosphere in China whereas central China suffers from severe overpopulation and displays severe signs of soil erosion accompanied by frequent droughts and floods due to lack of forest coverage.

Since the late 1970s, the economy of Fujian along the coast has greatly benefited from its geographic and cultural proximity to Taiwan. In 2003, Xiamen ranked number eight GDP per capita among 659 Chinese cities, ahead of Shanghai and Beijing, while Fuzhou ranked no. 21 (number 4 among 30 provincial capitals)[citation needed]. The development has been accompanied by a large influx of population from the over-populated areas in the north and west, and much of the farmland and forest as well as cultural heritage sites such as the temples of king Wuzhu have given way to ubiquitous high-rise buildings, and the government faces a challenge at all levels to sustain development while, at the same time, preserving the unique and vital natural and cultural heritage of Fujian.

Taiwan was a part of Fujian Province from 1684 to 1887. In 1877, although Taiwan was a single province, its official name was "Fujian's Taiwan Province" (福建臺灣省).

See also: Early western influence in Fujian

Geography

The province is mostly mountainous, and is traditionally described to be "Eight parts mountain, one part water, and one part farmland" (八山一水一分田). The northwest is higher in altitude, with the Wuyi Mountains forming the border between Fujian and Jiangxi. The highest point of Fujian is Huanggang Peak in the Wuyi Mountains, with an altitude of 2157 m.

The province faces East China Sea to the east, South China Sea to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the southeast. The coastline is ragged and has many bays and islands. Major islands include Quemoy (controlled by the Republic of China), Haitan Island, and Nanri Island.

The River Min Jiang and its tributaries cut through much of northern and central Fujian. Other rivers include the Jinjiang River and the Jiulong River. Due to its uneven topography, Fujian has many cliffs and rapids.

Fujian is separated from Taiwan by the 180-km-wide Taiwan Strait. Some of the small islands in the Taiwan Strait are also part of the province. Small parts of the province, namely the islands of Quemoy and Matsu are under the administration of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Fujian has a subtropical climate, with warm winters. In January the coastal regions average around 7-10 °C while the hills average 6-8 °C. In summer temperatures are high, and province is threatened by typhoons coming in from the Pacific. Average annual precipitation is 1400-2000 mm.

Major cities:

Fuzhou (Foochow)

Xiamen (Amoy)

Quanzhou

Zhangzhou

Putian

Administrative divisions

The People's Republic of China controls most of the province, and divides it into nine prefecture-level divisions, all of them prefecture-level cities:

Fuzhou (Simplified Chinese: 福州市; Hanyu Pinyin: Fúzhōu Shì)

Xiamen (厦门市 Xiàmén Shì)

Zhangzhou (漳州市 Zhāngzhōu Shì)

Quanzhou (泉州市 Quánzhōu Shì)

Sanming (三明市 Sānmíng Shì)

Putian (莆田市 Pútián Shì)

Nanping (南平市 Nánpíng Shì)

Longyan (龙岩市 Lóngyán Shì)

Ningde (宁德市 Níngdé Shì)

All of the prefecture-level cities except Longyan, Sanming, and Nanping are found along the coast.

The nine prefecture-level divisions are subdivided into 85 county-level divisions (26 districts, 14 county-level cities, and 45 counties). Those are in turn divided into 1107 township-level divisions (605 towns, 328 townships, 18 ethnic townships, and 156 subdistricts). Note: these are the official PRC numbers. Thus, Quemoy is included as one of the 45 counties and Matsu as one of the 334 townships.

Quemoy County is nominally controlled by Quanzhou prefecture-level city, but it is administered in its entirety by the Republic of China on Taiwan. The PRC-administered Lianjiang County, under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou prefecture-level city, nominally includes the Matsu Islands, but Matsu is in reality controlled by the Republic of China on Taiwan, which administers Matsu as Lienchiang County (same name Romanized differently).

See List of administrative divisions of Fujian for a complete list of county-level divisions.

Politics

List of the Secretaries of the CPC Fujian Committee

Zhang Dingcheng (张鼎丞): June 1949-October 1954

Ye Fei (叶飞): October 1954-June 1958

Jiang Yizhen (江一真): acting 1958-1970

Han Xianchu (韩先楚): April 1971-December 1973

Liao Zhigao (廖志高): December 1974-February 1982

Xiang Nan (项南): February 1982-March 1986

Chen Guangyi (陈光毅)； March 1986-December 1993

Jia Qinglin (贾庆林): December 1993-October 1996

Chen Mingyi (陈明义): October 1996-December 2000　

Song Defu (宋德福): December 2000-February 2004

Lu Zhangong (卢展工): February 2004-incumbent

List of Governors

Zhang Dingcheng (张鼎丞): August 1949-October 1954

Ye Fei (叶飞): October 1954-January 1959

Jiang Yizhen (江一真): October 1959-December 1962

Wen Jinshui (魏金水): December 1962-August 1968　

Han Xianchu (韩先楚): August 1968-December 1973

Liao Zhigao (廖志高): November 1974-December 1979

Ma Xingyuan (马兴元): December 1979-January 1983

Hu Ping (胡平): January 1983-September 1987

Wang Zhaoguo (王兆国): September 1987-November 1990

Jia Qinglin (贾庆林): November 1990-April 1994

Chen Mingyi (陈明义): April 1994-October 1996

He Guoqiang (贺国强): October 1996-August 1999

Xi Jinping (习近平): August 1999-October 2002

Lu Zhangong (卢展工): October 2002-December 2004

Huang Xiaojing (黄小晶): December 2004-incumbent

Economy

Xiamen with old and new buildings.

Fujian is hilly and farmland is sparse. Rice is the main crop, supplemented by sweet potatoes and wheat. Cash crops include sugar cane and rapeseed. Fujian leads the provinces of China in longan production, and is also a major producer of lychees and tea. Seafood is another important product, with shellfish production especially prominent.

Fujian is one of the wealthier provinces of China. Xiamen was one of the first cities in China to be classified as a Special Economic Zone. Because of the closeness both geographically and culturally with Taiwan, Fujian receives much investment from there.

In 2006, Fujian's nominal GDP was 750.2 billion yuan (US$94 billion), a rise of 13% from the previous year.

Demographics

Han Chinese make up most of the population. Hakka, a Han Chinese people with its own distinct identity, live in the southwestern parts of the province. Hui'an, also a Han branch with their own colorful culture and fashion, populate Fujian's southeast coastline near Chongwu in Hui'an County. The She, scattered over mountainous regions in the north, is the largest minority ethnic group of the province. Genetic studies have suggested that a significant proportion of Han Chinese ancestry in Fujian descend (predominantly matrilineally) from pre-Sinicization aborigines.

Many ethnic Chinese around the world, especially Southeast Asia, trace their ancestry to Fujian. Descendants of Fujian emigrants make up the majority of the majority ethnic Chinese population of Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia. Fujian, especially Fuzhou, is also the major source of undocumented Chinese immigrants in the United States.

Culture

See also: Music of Fujian, Hakka architecture, and Dog Kung Fu

Because of its mountainous nature and the numerous waves of migration from central China in the course of history, Fujian is one of the most linguistically diverse places in all Han Chinese areas of China. Local dialects can become unintelligible within 10 km. This is reflected in the expression that "if you drive five miles in Fujian the culture changes, and if you drive ten miles, the language does". Classification of these various dialects have confounded linguists. In general, most dialects of Fujian are put into a broad Min category, then subdivided into Min Bei, Min Dong, Min Zhong, Min Nan, Pu Xian, and Shao Jiang. (The seventh subdivision of Min, Qiong Wen, is not spoken in Fujian.) The Fuzhou dialect is part of Min Dong, but some linguists classified it as Min Bei; the Xiamen dialect is part of Min Nan. Hakka, another subdivision of spoken Chinese, is spoken around Longyan by the Hakka people who live there.

As is true of other provinces, the official language in Fujian is Standard Mandarin, which is used for communication between people of different localities. During the Qing dynasty, traders in Fujian also used pidgin English as a common language, although this is now extinct.[citation needed]

Several regions of Fujian have their own form of Chinese opera. Minju (Fujian Opera) is popular around Fuzhou; Gaojiaxi around Jinjiang and Quanzhou; Xiangju around Zhangzhou; Fujian Nanqu throughout the south, and Puxianxi around Putian and Xianyou County.

Fujian cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood, is one of the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine. It is composed of traditions from various regions, including Fuzhou cuisine and Min Nan cuisine. The most prestigious dish is Fotiaoqiang (literally "Buddha Jumps Over Wall"), a complex dish making use of many ingredients, including shark fin, sea cucumber, abalone, and Shaoxing wine (a form of "Chinese alcoholic beverage").

Many famous teas originate from Fujian, including oolong, Wuyi Yancha, and Fuzhou jasmine tea. Fujian tea ceremony is an elaborate way of preparing and serving tea. In fact, the English word "tea" is borrowed from Min nan language. (Standard Mandarin and Standard Cantonese pronounce the word as chá.)

Fuzhou bodiless lacquer ware, a famous type of lacquer ware, is noted for using a body of clay and/or plaster to form its shape; the body later removed. Fuzhou is also famous for Shoushan stone carvings.

Tourism

Places of interest include:

Guanghua Temple, mainland Putian

Gulangyu Island, Xiamen

Kaiyuan Temple, Quanzhou

Mount Tailao, Fuding

Mount Wuyi, listed by the UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites (1999)

Nanshan Temple, Zhangzhou

The Matsu pilgrimage centers around Meizhou Island (Putian Municipality), because she was born there (and died on Matsu Islands).

Yongquan Temple, Fuzhou

Hakka architecture

Famous people

The province also has a tradition of educational achievement, and has produced many important scholars and statesmen since the time of the Song dynasty, such as:

Zheng Qiao (1108-1166), historian.

Zhu Xi (1130-1200), Confucian philosopher.

Hong Chengchou (1593-1665), Ming dynasty official.

Lin Zexu (1785-1850), scholar and official.

Lin Shu (1852-1924), translator.

Yan Fu (1854-1921), scholar and translator.

Zheng Zhenduo (1898-1958), literary historian.

Go Seigen (born 1914), pseudonym of Go champion Wú Qīngyuán.

Miscellaneous topics

Professional sports teams in Fujian include:

Chinese Basketball Association Fujian Xunxing

Chinese Football Association Jia League Xiamen Lanshi

Colleges and universities

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

National

Huaqiao University (华侨大学) (Quanzhou)

Xiamen University (厦门大学) (founded 1921) (Xiamen)

Public

Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (福建农林大学) (Fuzhou)

Fujian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (福建中医学院) (Fuzhou)

Fujian Medical University (福建医科大学) (Fuzhou)

Fujian Normal University (福建师范大学) (founded 1907) (Fuzhou)

Fujian University of Technology (福建工程学院) (Fuzhou)

Fuzhou University (福州大学) (Fuzhou)

Jimei University (集美大学) (Xiamen)

Minjiang University (闽江学院) (Fuzhou)

Putian University (莆田学院) (Putian)

Quanzhou Normal College (泉州师范学院) (Quanzhou)

Zhangzhou Normal College (漳州师范学院) (Zhangzhou)

Private

Yang-en University (仰恩大学) (Quanzhou)

Fujian Travel Guide

Fujian (福建) [1] is a province in South East China.

Cities

The three most important cities (North to South along the coast) are:

Fuzhou, the provincial capital. Population 1.2 million in the city itself, 6.6 million for the prefecture

Quanzhou, a historic port, 330,000 / 6.5 million

Xiamen, port city and special economic zone, 700,000 / 1.3 million

Other cities include:

Longyan in the West of Fujian, nature reserves and Hakka earth houses, 192,000 / 2.8 million

Nanping up the Min river from Fuzhou, 236,000 / 3 million

Ningde on the coast, North of Fuzhou, 125,000 / 3.2 million

Putian between Fuzhou and Quanzhou, 170,000 / 3.2 million

Sanming up in the mountains, 207.000 / 2.7 million

Zhangzhou inland, Southwest of Xiamen, 250,000 / 4.5 million

Prefecture population numbers are from a Fujian government site [2]. Other numbers are from another site [3] and may not be up to date.

Other destinations

The province's main tourist attractions are:

Wu Yi Mountain, a very scenic area famous for its tea

the Hakka earth round houses Longyan, fascinating, centuries-old buildings that are home to a whole clan

Gulang Yu, an island across a narrow strait from downtown Xiamen, featuring old colonial buildings, lots of tourist shops, and a piano museum.

Quanzhou is off the beaten path but worth visiting. Also its neighboring towns:

Anxi provided the tea for the Boston Tea Party, and has a beautiful temple at Qingshui rock.

Dehau makes fine white pottery, famous as 'blanc de chine' in the West.

Chongwu is a lovely old walled town, with excellent beaches nearby

Putian has a temple to the sea goddess Mazu. Her annual festival, in spring, brings in hundreds of thousands of visitors, mainly fishermen or sailors from Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Understand

Historically, Fujian has been one of the more prosperous and outward-looking provinces of China. In the 1900s, two of China's five treaty ports - Xiamen and Fuzhou - were in Fujian. After the Second World war, however, Fujian's traditional trade with Japan was reduced and her other main customer, Taiwan, was the enemy. Recently, however, Fujian is recovering. Like other coastal provinces, it is now one of the more modern and prosperous areas of China.

As everywhere in China, there are many religions and quite a few atheists. Fujian has a higher proportion of Muslims than most areas of Southern China due to the history of trade via the Maritime Silk Road, and quite a few Christians since it was a focus of 19th century missionary activity.

Talk

Today, all educated people in Fujian speak Mandarin. It has been the language of education throughout China since the 1950s and is now the lingua franca in Fujian as everywhere else.

However, Fujian also has dozens of its own dialects. The terrain is mountainous; at one time nearly every valley had its own language, this is mostly due to the mountainous landscape of the province, where in the past,transportations were difficult which resulted development of numerous dialect, These dialects are usually described with the prefix "Min", where Min is another name for Fujian.

Among the most important is Minnan, (Southern Min), spoken in Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and surrounding areas. Many people in Taiwan speak the same language, though they may call it Taiwanese. In Malaysia and Singapore, the same language is called Hokkien (the Minnan word for Fujian).

Fuzhou dialect (fuzhou hua) also has a large number of speakers.

Get in

Fujian is well connected via China's domestic airline, bus, highway and train networks. The main airports are at Xiamen and Fuzhou; both have flights to Hong Kong as well as many mainland cities. Xiamen also has cheap international connections to Manila, Singapore and Bangkok; see Discount airlines in Asia for details.

The scenic Wu Yi Mountain area also has an airport with good domestic connections. Often package deals are available - flights and accommodation, and perhaps a guide, for a fixed price.

Get around

The main mode of intercity travel is by bus. There are trains, but some routes are not convenient because of mountainous terrain. New lines for high speed trains are, as of mid-2007, under construction but nowhere near ready. Flying within the province is relatively expensive.

Eat

Fujian has its own cuisine, largely based on seafood. One famous dish is "Buddha jumps over a wall", a complex chowder that supposedly smells good enough to make a vegetarian monk forget his vows and hop a fence.

Drink

Fujian is famous for tea (in the 19th century, Fuzhou was China's busiest tea port) and you can get good tea almost anywhere. Try the tea eggs(茶葉蛋 cháyèdàn), hard boiled eggs available on streets everywhere.

Like most of China, Fujian has quite a few locations for several large coffee chains, including UBC Coffee (上岛咖啡 shàngdǎo kāfēi), Ming Tien and SPR. It also has some good smaller chains, Blenz, Dawin and King Buck; these are usually cheaper.

As anywhere in China, beer is widely available. Hui Quan is a Fujian brand, a light palatable lager.

A chain of bars called Scotland (some complete with a statue of a kilted piper outside) have locations in Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou. They often have Filipino bands and are popular with expats, expensive by Chinese standards (¥30 beer) but perhaps worth it.

Stay safe

Like other areas on the Southern coastal, Fujian is prone to typhoons, which occur mostly from July to September. The province is also located on several small fault lines, and so is occasionally hit by earthquakes, though these tend to be minor.

Get out

Neighboring provinces along the coast are Zhejiang to the North and Guangdong to the South. Jiangxi lies inland of Fujian. There are good connections to any of these by road or rail.