(;
Foochow Romanized:
Hók-ciŭ;
EFEO: Fou-Tcheou; also seen as
Foochow,
Fuchow,
Fuh-chau,
Hock Chew or
Hokchew in earlier Western documents) is the capital and the largest
municipality of
Fujian (福建)
province,
People's Republic of China.
The city is also referred to as
Rongcheng (; Foochow Romanized:
Ṳ̀ng-siàng) which means "city of
banyan trees".
Along with the many counties of
Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the
Mindong (闽东, lit. East of Fujian) linguistic and cultural area.
Fuzhou's core counties lie on the north (or left) bank of the estuary of Fujian's largest river, the
Min River. All along its northern border lies Ningde, and Ningde's
Gutian County lies upriver. Fuzhou's counties south of the Min border on
Putian,
Quanzhou,
Sanming and
Nanping municipalities.
Culture
Banyan King in Fuzhou National Forest Park (福州国家森林公园).
The
City of Banyans is distinct from the mainstream inland cultures of central China, and in details varies from other areas of Maritime China
Language and art
Besides
Mandarin Chinese, local residents of Fuzhou also speak
Fuzhou dialect, a language that is considered to be the standard form of the
Min Dong dialect.
Min opera, also known as Fuzhou drama, is one of the major
operas in
Fujian Province. It enjoys popularity in Fuzhou area, and neighboring parts of Fujian such as the northeast and northwest areas where the Fuzhou dialect is spoken, as well as in
Taiwan and the
Malay Archipelago. It became a fixed opera in the early 20th century. There are more than 1000 plays of Min opera, most of which originate from folk tales, historical novels, or ancient legends, including such traditional plays as "Making Seal", "The Purple Jade Hairpin" and "Switching Fairy Peach with Litchi".
Religion
The two traditional mainstream religions practiced in Fuzhou are
Mahayana Buddhism and
Taoism. Traditionally, many people practice both religions simultaneously. The city is also home to many Buddhist monasteries/Taoist temples and Buddhist monks.
Islam and
Christianity are practised to a lesser degree.
Apart from mainstream religions, a number of religious worship sites of various local religions, are situated in the streets and lanes of Fuzhou.
The origins of local religion can be dated back centuries. These diverse religions incorporated elements such as gods and doctrines from other religions and cultures, such as totem worship and traditional legends. For example,
Monkey King, originated to monkey worship among local ancients, gradually came to embody the God of Wealth in Fuzhou after the novel
Journey to the West was issued in
Ming dynasty.
As the most popular religion in the Min River Valley, the worship of
Lady Linshui (临水夫人) is viewed as one of the three most influential local religions in Fujian, the other two being the worship of
Mazu (妈祖) and Baosheng Dadi (保生大帝).
Local cuisine
Fuzhou's local dish Litchi Pork, famous for its sweet flavor.
is one of the four traditional cooking styles of
Fujian cuisine, which in turn is of the eight Chinese regional cuisines. Dishes are light but flavourful, with particular emphasis on
umami taste, known in Chinese cooking as "xiānwèi" (traditional Chinese: 鮮味; simplified Chinese: 鲜味), as well as retaining the original flavour of the main ingredients instead of masking them. In Fuzhou cuisine, the taste is light compared to that of some other Chinese cooking styles, and often have a mixed sweet and sour taste. Soup, served as a indispensable dish in meals, is cooked in various ways with local seasonal fresh vegetables and seafood.
Special crafts
Bodiless lacquerwares (脱胎漆器), paper umbrellas (纸伞) and horn combs (角梳) are the "Three Treasures" of Fuzhou traditional arts. In addition, bodiless lacquerwares, cork pictures (软木画) and Shoushan stone sculptures (寿山石雕) are called "Three Superexcellences" of Fuzhou.
Gender roles
Fuzhou males are perceived in the rest of Fujian province as being rather subservient in sex-relations, the stereotypical image being that of a husband following his wife around a shopping area, holding many bags. This has led to the Fujianese maxim (or cultural rule of thumb) "Don't marry a Fuzhou woman". Whatever the truth of these perceptions, Fuzhou males do seem rather more given than men in other cities to compensatory counter-type behaviour towards female strangers, such as cutting queues, stealing taxis and even
flashing, for which the local term is
liuniaoxia (遛鸟侠, from
liuniao, to take the (pet) bird out for a stroll (
ie to the park, as done by retirees all over China) +
xia, action hero).
Emigration
Fuzhou's history of emigration since Ming dynasty with Zheng he's vovages overseas. As the result of immigration of Fuzhouese to southeast Asia, Fuzhou dialect is found in Malaysia and Indonesia.The city of Sibu of Malaysia is called "new Fuzhou" due to immigration wave in early 1900s.
History
The exact foundation date of the city is not known. The province's pre-Han history is sketchy: it is known that the
Yue Kingdom (in present-day
Zhejiang, to the north) fell to that of the
Chu in
306 BC; the legend is that a branch of the Yue royal family fled south to found upon the natives the reign of the
Minyue (闽越). Duing the ensuing century of independence from central China, their major centre was not here but far up the Min watershed in
Wuyishan City.
The first city wall of Fuzhou was built in
202 BC when
Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the
Han Dynasty, gave permission to Wuzhu (无诸), the king of Minyue, to set up his capital in Fuzhou. The city was named Ye (冶), meaning "the beautiful". The city name has changed many times, but the city itself has been continuously occupied since 202 BC and has never suffered major destruction by wars or natural disasters.
The Minyue was annexed by Han in
110 BC.
Han Dynasty to Song Dynasty
thumb|right|"Fuzhou" literally means "Happy Region" or "Blessed Region".Under the
Han, Fuzhou became Ye County.
During the
Jin Dynasty, West Lake, East Lake (now silted up) and numerous canals in the city were constructed (282 AD). When the Jin Dynasty collapsed, the first wave of immigrants of the gentile class arrived in Fujian (308 AD).
Hualin Temple in the original Ye city, which has been declared a national heritage site, was built in 964 AD according to documentation, but was
carbon-dated to the 4th or 5th century AD. It is likely the oldest existing wooden structure in China.
During the
Tang Dynasty (725 AD), the city started to be called Fuzhou.
More immigrants arrived from the north starting from 892 as the Tang Dynasty was collapsing. After the Tang Dynasty fell in 907, the Wang family managed to establish a kingdom called
Min (909 – 945) with its capital in Fuzhou, then known as Changle. Min is still used as another name for the province of
Fujian, in names of region such as
minnan, and the river that runs through Fuzhou is called
Min Jiang.
New city walls were built in 282 AD, 901 AD, 905 AD, and 974 AD, so the city had many layers of walls — more so than the Chinese capital.
Emperor Taizong of the
Song Dynasty (宋) ordered the destruction of all the walls in Fuzhou in 978 AD but new walls were rebuilt later. The latest was built in 1371 AD.
During the
Southern Song Dynasty, Fuzhou became more prosperous; many scholars came to live and work. Among them were
Zhu Xi (朱熹), the most celebrated Chinese philosopher after
Confucius, and
Xin Qiji (辛弃疾), the greatest composer of the
ci form of poetry.
Mongolian Yuan Dynasty
Marco Polo, an Italian guest of the Emperor
Kubilai,
transcribed, after the conventions of
Italian orthography, the place name as
Fugiu. This was not the local
Min pronunciation but that of the
Mandarin administrative class.
Ming Dynasty
Between 1405 and 1433 AD, a fleet of the
Ming Imperial navy under Admiral
Zheng He sailed from Fuzhou to the
Indian Ocean seven times; on three occasions the fleet landed on the east coast of
Africa. Before the last sailing, Zheng erected a
stele dedicated to the goddess
Tian-Fei (Matsu) near the
seaport.
Galeote Pereira, a Portuguese soldier and trader, was taken prisoner during the pirate extermination campaign of 1549 and imprisoned in Fuzhou. Later transferred to a form of
internal exile elsewhere in the province, Pereira escaped to
Macau in 1553. The record of his experiences in the Ming Empire, logged by the
Jesuits at
Goa in 1561, was the first non-clerical account of China to reach the West since Polo's.
Qing Dynasty
In the 19th century,
Lin Zexu, born in Fuzhou, a high-ranking official of Qing Dynasty, led an attempt to resist British colonialism at
Guangzhou. Unsuccessful and reviled by the
East India Company, he was
internally exiled to
Xinjiang near the
Russian border. By the
1842 peace treaty which concluded the
Opium War I, Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese
treaty ports, and it became completely open to Western merchants and missionaries.
Fuzhou was one of the most important
Protestant mission fields in China. On
January 2,
1846, the first Protestant missionary, Rev. Stephen Johnson from
ABCFM, entered the city and soon set up the first missionary station there. ABCFM was followed by the
Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society that was led by Revs.
M. C. White and
J. D. Collins, who reached Fuzhou in early September 1847. The
Church Missionary Society also arrived in the city in May 1850. These three Protestant agencies remained in Fuzhou until the communists' takeover of mainland China in the 1950s, leaving a rich heritage in Fuzhou's Protestant culture.
On
August 23,
1884, the
Battle of Fuzhou broke out between the French Far East Fleet and the
Fujian Fleet of the Qing Dynasty. As the result, the Fujian Fleet, one of the four Chinese regional fleets, was destroyed completely in Mawei Harbor.
Engravings and photos
Republic of China
On November 8, 1911, revolutionaries staged an uprising in Fuzhou. After an overnight street battle, the
Qing (Manchu) army surrendered.
Revolutionary Republic
On November 22, 1933,
Eugene Chen and the leaders of the
National Revolutionary Army's 19th Army set up the short-lived
People's Revolutionary Government of Republican China (中華共和國人民革命政府). Blockaded by
Chiang Kai-shek and left to twist in the wind by the nearby
Soviet Republic of China, the PRGRC collapsed within two months.
Japanese Occupation
The 1940 Japanese seizure was quickly effected. Surrounded by hills on 3 sides, the only escape route Fuzhou afforded its civilians was the bridges across the
Min. These the Japanese bombed, leaving many of the civilians to make the dangerously river crossing on foot. The Japanese army soon controlled the city and occupied it until Japan's surrender in 1945.
Following the restitution of Republic control (1946), the administration divisions of Fuzhou were annexed, and administration level was promoted from county-level to city-level officially.
People's Republic
On December 13, 1993, a raging fire swept through a
textile factory in Fuzhou and claimed the lives of 60 workers.
On October 2, 2005, floodwaters from
Typhoon Longwang swept away a
military school, killing at least 80
paramilitary officers.
Administrative divisions
The administrative divisions of Fuzhou have been changed frequently throughout history. From 1983, the Fuzhou current administrative divisions were formed officially, namly, 5 districts and 8 counties respectively. In 1990 and 1994, Fuqing (Hók-chiăng) and Changle (Diòng-lŏ̤h) counties were promoted to
county-level cities. Despite these changes, the administrative image of "5 districts and 8 counties" is still held popularly among local residents. Fuzhou's entire area only covers 9.65% of Fujian Province.
The city of Fuzhou has direct jurisdiction over 5
districts (区
qu), 2
county-level cities (市
shi), and 6
counties (县
xian) :
Geography and climate
Fuzhou is located in the northeast coast of Fujian province, in the opposite of North Taiwan, connects jointly northwards with Ningde and Nanping, southwards with Quanzhou and Putian, westwards with Sanming respectively.
Transportation
The seal of Fuzhou: 3 hills and a river.
Airports
The city is served by two airports:
Fuzhou Changle International Airport and
Fuzhou Yixu Airport (old airfield). The former is its main international airport and a air-hub in the southeast China, the latter one was turned into a
PLA airbase after 1997.
Railways
Currently, the main railway is the "Wai Fu Railway", running eastwards through the northern districts towards Jiangxi province. The subline "Fuma railway" runs from the city hub to Mawei district. Two more railways are also under construction: The "Wen Fu railway" runs north towards
Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang province, while the "Fuxia railway" runs south towards Xiamen. This later railway is designed to be a high-speed railway with speeds up to 200 km and will be completed by early July 2009. There are also plans for 2 metro lines, with the first line to be completed by 2014.
- Railway stations: The Fuzhou Rail Station is located north of city center, near the North Second Ring Road. Construction on the Strait Rail Station in Cangshan district, a key landmark of the New City development scheme, began in 2007 and is scheduled to be completed in 2010.
Seaport
In 1867 the Fuzhou seaport was the site of one of China's first major experiments with Western technology, when the
Fuzhou Navy Yard was established: A
shipyard and an
arsenal were built under
French guidance and a
naval school was opened. A
naval academy was also established at the shipyard, and it became a center for the study of European languages and technical sciences. The academy, which offered courses in English, French,
engineering, and
navigation, produced a generation of Western-trained officers, including the famous scholar-reformer
Yan Fu (1854–1921).
The yard was established as part of a program to strengthen China in the wake of the country's disastrous defeat the
second Opium War (1856–60). But most talented students continued to pursue a traditional
Confucian education, and by the mid-1870s the government began to lose interest in the shipyard, which had trouble securing funds and declined in importance. Fuzhou remained essentially a commercial center and a port until
World War II; it had relatively little
industry. The port was occupied by the
Japanese during 1940–45.
Since 1949, Fuzhou has grown considerably. Transportation has been improved by the dredging of the
Min River for navigation by medium-sized craft upstream to
Nanping. In 1956 the railway linking Fuzhou with the interior of the province and with the main
Chinese railway system began operation. The port has also been improved; Fuzhou itself is no longer accessible to seagoing ships, but
Luoxingta anchorage and the outer harbor at
Guantou on the coast of the
East China Sea have been modernized and improved. The chief exports are timber, fruits, paper, and foodstuffs.
Economy
Residential Buildings in Fuzhou
Industry is supplied with power by a grid running from the
Gutian hydroelectric scheme in the mountains to the northwest. The city is a center for
industrial chemicals and has
food-processing,
timber-working, engineering, papermaking, printing, and textile industries. A small iron and steel plant was built in 1958. In 1984 Fuzhou was designated one of China's "open" cities in the new
open-door policy inviting
foreign investments.
Handicrafts remain important in the rural areas, and the city is famous for its
lacquer and wood products.
Its
GDP was ¥33,615 (ca. US$4,840) per capita in 2008,
ranked no. 21 among 659 Chinese cities.
Fuzhou is undoubtedly the province’s political, economic and cultural center as well as an industrial center and seaport on the Min River. In 2008, Fuzhou’s GDP amounted to ¥228.4 billion, an increase of 13 percent.
Manufactured products include chemicals, silk and cotton textiles, iron and steel, and processed food. Among Fuzhou's exports are fine lacquerware and handcrafted fans and umbrellas. The city's trade is mainly with Chinese coastal ports. Its exports of timber, food products, and paper move through the harbor at Guantou located about 50 km downstream.
In 2008, exports reached US$13.6 billion, a growth of 10.4 percent while imports amounted to US$6.8 billion. Total retail sales for the same period came to ¥113.4 billion and per capita GDP grew to ¥33,615.
During the same period, Fuzhou approved 155 foreign-invested projects. Contracted foreign investment amounted to US$1.489 billion, while utilized foreign investment increased by 43 percent to US$1.002 billion.
Sites
Historical / cultural
- Sanfang Qixiang (三坊七巷) (a cluster of ancient residential buildings dated from late Jin Dynasty)
- West Lake (福州西湖) (an artificial landscape style lake built in 282 AD)
Its main hall is known as the oldest surviving wooden building in south China，and was confirmed as an important heritage site under state protection in 1982.
- Dizang Temple (The Temple of Sacrificing Guardian of the Earth, founded in 527 AD)
- Xichan Temple (西禅寺) (founded in 867 AD)
- Wu Ta (乌塔) (Black Pagoda) (originally built in 799 AD, rebuilt in 936 AD)
- Bai Ta (白塔) (White Pagoda) (originally built in 905 AD, 67 m in height, collapsed in 1534 AD, rebuilt in 1548 AD, 41 m in height)
- Yongquan Temple (涌泉寺) (founded in 915 AD)
- Gu Shan (鼓山) (Drum Mountain)
Recreational
- Fujian Provincial Museum (福建省博物馆)
- Wulongjiang Shidi Park (乌龙江湿地公园)(A wetland park. However, the park is in distress due to ineffective environmental protection and construction.)
- Fuzhou National Forest Park (福州国家森林公园)
Photo gallery
Famous Natives
thumb|right|Fuzhou Memorial Hall of Lin Zexu- Chen Baochen (陈宝琛, 1848—1935), Chinese scholar and loyalist to the Qing Dynasty
- Yan Fu (严复, 1854—1921), Chinese scholar and translator, best known for introducing western ideas such as Darwinian evolution
- Zheng Zhenduo (郑振铎, 1898—1958), Chinese journalist and literary scholar
- Bing Xin (冰心, 1900—1999), female Chinese writer
- Watchman Nee (倪柝声, 1903—1972), Chinese Christian author and church leader
- Lin Huiyin (林徽因, 1904—1955), female Chinese architect and writer
- Wu Qingyuan (吳清源, 1914—), Chinese Weiqi/Go player, considered by many players to be the greatest player of the game in the 20th century and one of the greatest of all time.
Education
thumb|right|Fujian SeminaryColleges and universities
Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.
Twin towns — Sister cities
Fuzhou is twinned with the following cities:Exchange Program with the following cities:See also
