A sunny day in Quanzhou, Fujian

---

A beautiful and relaxing day in Quanzhou, Fujian, at the beginning of April. Good life with Becky!

Like every year around Tomb Sweeping Festival (Qingming Jie) the weather around Fuzhou was rainy and pretty unpredictable. We got up at least 3 times at 6am to go to Quanzhou but as it was raining, we ended up going back to sleep every time! But finally one morning the sky was clear and blue, so we took the fast train south and enjoyed a wonderful day in Quanzhou! I really enjoyed this city and wouldn't mind going back in the future for more hiking. Quanzhou is like a little Fuzhou. The fact that it is much smaller than Fuzhou makes it very convenient to get around. People seem very laid-back and we didn't witness any traffic jam... It's also possible to get to the surrounded mountains within 15 minutes from downtown: really nice!

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the main temple in Quanzhou (Kai yuan Si) and the mountains above Quanzhou (Qing Yuan Shan).

---

Photos

Kai Yuan Si Pagoda
It was originally built in 685 or 686 during the Tang Dynasty but was rebuilt by the Tamil Hindu community in the city in the late 13th century who dedicated it to Lord Shiva.

A tree of 1300 years
A massacre of the Portuguese at Quanzhou resulted in the Portuguese settlement of Macau. After the Portuguese bribed their way into obtaining a trade mission in Ch' uanchou (Quanzhou), they inflicted savage behaviour against the Chinese. In retaliation, in 1549 the entire Portuguese community of Quanzhou were exterminated by Chinese forces.

Kai Yuan Si has 2 pagodas
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two (Ningde and Nanping) and faces the Taiwan Strait. In older English works, its name may appear as Chinchew, Chinchu, or Zayton.

Inside Kai Yuan Si, an 800-year old tree
Locals speak Hokkien, a variety of Min Nan similar to Amoy (spoken in Xiamen) and Taiwanese. It is essentially the same as the dialect spoken in Xiamen and Zhangzhou, and is unintelligible with Standard Chinese (Mandarin). Many overseas Chinese whose ancestors came from the Quanzhou area, especially those in Southeast Asia, often speak mainly Hokkien at home. The local speak Minnan language which is called Taiwanese in Taiwan. Around the triangle area, which are Quanzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou, locals all speak Minnan language. The language they speak is same but has different intonations.

Kai Yuan Si
Quanzhou is also a migration source of many Overseas Chinese living in South East Asia and to Taiwan during the last couple of centuries. About 6 million people whose ancestors were from Quanzhou now live abroad. Most of them live in Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), or Thailand. One tenth (0,6) of overseas Quanzhounese now live in Hong Kong.

Comments

[Frenchgirlroundtheworld]

Moving to Quanzhou
I am going to move to Quanzhou in March and your pictures and comments about the mountains are showing me that I did the right choice there :) Hope you are doing well in Beijing, without too much smog...