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Fuzhou |
 Fuzhou
is the capital city of Fujian Province, located on China’s southeastern
coast. With a long tradition as a coastal port and shipbuilding center,
Fuzhou is the major coastal city between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It is
known as “Banyan Town” after the subtropical banyan trees planted there
since the Song dynasty. As the central city of a province with many
ethnic and linguistic links to Taiwan, Fuzhou has benefited from
cross-strait investment and is today a major commercial and
manufacturing center.
Fuzhou lies on the Min River, in the east of Fujian Province, some 50 km
(30 miles) from the sea. The city is on a subtropical plain close to the
Fu Mountains. It is 700 km (435 miles) northeast of Hong Kong, and 1,500
km (930 miles) southeast of Beijing.
Fuzhou’s history dates back to the 3rd century AD, when it became a
center of ore smelting. Thereafter it was capital, known as Minzhou, of
the coastal kingdom of Minyue. When it was absorbed into the Tang
dynasty, Fuzhou acquired its present name, which mean “prosperous city”
or “fortunate city.” It grew wealthy as a coastal port for the export of
tea.
Marco Polo is supposed to have passed through Fuzhou at the end of the
13th century. He described it as a great center of international
commerce with special links to the Indian trade, prosperous, with great
gardens and an abundance of fruit. He also noted the presence of a large
Christian community there, with roots going back several hundred years.
These were possibly descendants of Nestorian Christians, a Syrian sect
that had come to China via the Silk Road.
Fuzhou’s international links continued in the Ming dynasty, when it was
the homeport for the international voyages of the eunuch-admiral Zheng
He in the early 15th century. In 1842, following the Opium Wars, Fuzhou
became one of the five ports declared open to foreign trade. It also
became a center of both Catholic and Protestant missionary activity
after that time.
Because of Fuzhou’s proximity to Taiwan, and the ethnic and linguistic
closeness of the two regions, cross-strait investment has made Fuzhou
one of China’s most prosperous cities. |
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