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. Ibn Battuta, who visited in the 14th century, found it the most considerable of all the ports he had seen.

The city's UNESCO listing in 2021 recognises 22 component sites that document this maritime-emporium era: the Qingjing Mosque (founded 1009 CE, the oldest surviving Arab-style mosque in China), the Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple complex (founded 686 CE, the city's largest temple with Indian-influenced carved column bases), the Tianhou Temple (the canonical Mazu sea-goddess shrine — the cult of Mazu originated in this Fujian coastal region), the Luoyang Bridge (1059 CE, the oldest stone-girder sea-crossing bridge in China), and the Cao'an Manichaean Temple — the only surviving Manichaean temple in the world, still lit by devotees.

The Maritime Museum holds a replica of the Song-dynasty merchant ship excavated from the harbour in the 1970s, with cargo of spices, coins and pepper intact after 800 years. Quanzhou is substantially less visited than the historical record warrants; the archaeological and architectural depth here is unusual in China.