Quanzhou

UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021) for its role as the maritime Silk Road's medieval emporium. Mosques, churches, Hindu temples, Buddhist monasteries — Marco Polo's 'Zaytun', the largest port in the world in the 13th century.

Quanzhou (Zaytun in medieval Arabic and European sources) was the largest port in the world in the 13th century, the eastern terminus of the maritime Silk Road, and the most religiously diverse city in the medieval world — substantial Muslim, Manichaean, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Daoist communities lived alongside the Han Chinese majority. Marco Polo described it as exceeded only by Alexandria in the volume of its pepper trade.

The city's UNESCO listing in 2021 recognises 22 component sites that together document this maritime-emporium era: the Qingjing Mosque (founded 1009, the oldest surviving Arab-style mosque in China), the Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple complex (founded 686 CE, the city's largest temple), the Tianhou Temple (the canonical Mazu sea-goddess temple — Mazu's cult originated near Quanzhou), the Luoyang Bridge (1059 CE — the oldest stone-girder bridge in China), the Maritime Museum and the substantial collection of Manichaean and Christian gravestones, plus the surviving Hindu temple stones at the Kaiyuan site.

Less visited than Suzhou or Hangzhou; the cultural depth substantially under-appreciated.