Experience the best of Quanzhou

Quanzhou lies on the Fujian coast, facing Taiwan, and was one of the great ports of the world in the Song and Yuan dynasties, when traders from Arabia, India and Persia settled here. Its historic sites, a UNESCO World Heritage listing since 2021, include Kaiyuan Temple, a Buddhist complex with two stone pagodas over forty metres tall, and the Qingjing Mosque, built in 1009, one of the oldest mosques in China.

On Qingyuan Mountain, a huge stone figure of Laozi is carved from a single rock, and the Luoyang Bridge, a long stone bridge of the eleventh century, spans the river estuary. Tianhou Temple honours the sea goddess Mazu. Minnan culture also lives on in puppet theatre and the music known as nanyin.

Quanzhou eats seafood, oyster omelettes and noodles in the Minnan style, and Anxi County, in the hills behind, grows Tieguanyin oolong tea, drunk in tiny cups in the gongfu ritual. Winters are short and mild.