Quanzhou

Quanzhou sits on the north bank of the Jin River, facing the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. As a prefecture-level port city, it forms the most populous metropolitan area in the province, covering 11,245 square kilometers and housing 8,782,285 people according to the 2020 census. Its built-up zone—which includes the Licheng, Fengze, and Luojiang urban districts; the cities of Jinjiang, Nan'an, and Shishi; Hui'an County; and the Quanzhou District for Taiwanese Investment—has 6,669,711 residents. In 2010, it ranked as China's 12th-largest extended metropolitan area.

From the 11th to the 14th centuries, Quanzhou served as China's primary port for international traders, who called it Zaiton. Both Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta visited and described it as one of the world's most prosperous and splendid cities. It functioned as the naval base for Mongol invasions of Japan and Java and was a cosmopolitan hub featuring Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches, including a Catholic cathedral and Franciscan friaries. A failed revolt in 1357 led to a massacre of its foreign communities. Later, economic troubles—such as piracy and the Ming and Qing dynasties' heavy-handed responses—diminished its wealth, with Japanese trade shifting to Ningbo and Zhapu and other foreign commerce restricted to Guangzhou. In the 19th century, Quanzhou became a center for opium smuggling, but silting in its harbor eventually prevented larger ships from docking.

Because of its role in medieval maritime trade, its unusual mix of religious buildings, and its extensive archaeological sites, "Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China" was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021.

**Names**

Quanzhou (historically known as Zayton or Zaiton in British and American sources, from the Arabic) is the atonal pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters 泉州, based on Mandarin pronunciation. The name comes from the city’s past as the seat of the imperial Quan ("Spring") Prefecture. Other romanizations include Ch'üan-chou (Wade-Giles), as well as Chwanchow-foo, Chwan-chau fu, Chwanchew, Ts'üan-chou, Tswanchow-foo, Tswanchau, T'swan-chau fu, Ts'wan-chiu, Ts'wan-chow-fu, Thsiouan-tchéou-fou, and Thsíouan-chéou-fou. Forms like Chuan-chiu, Choan-Chiu, and Shanju reflect the local Hokkien pronunciation.

The Postal Map name was "Chinchew," an English variant of Chincheo, which was also the historical Spanish, Portuguese (and later Dutch and French) name for the city. The exact origin of "Chincheo" is uncertain, with several explanations. It may have originally referred to neighboring Zhangzhou, as European sailors often used the term for the Bay of Amoy and its hinterland, or even all of Fujian. Charles R. Boxer (1953) and the 1902 Encyclopedia note that it likely transcribes the Quanzhou Hokkien pronunciation of Zhangzhou (漳州; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Cheng-chiu), the major Fujianese port in the 16th and 17th centuries—specifically the old port of Yuegang in Haicheng, Zhangzhou, which traded with Spanish Manila and Portuguese Macao. It is unclear when or why Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and later British and French sailors first applied this name to Quanzhou, possibly due to initial confusion from miscommunication between European sailors and Hokkien speakers around the Bay of Amoy, a term that stuck because of the language barrier. Another explanation by Duncan (1902) claims it derives from a supposed earlier "Tsuien-chow" Mandarin romanization (Mandarin: 泉州; pinyin: Quánzhōu). In the *Chineesch-Hollandsch Woordenboek van het Emoi dialekt* (1882), a Hokkien-Dutch dictionary from Dutch Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), the Quanzhou dialect of Hokkien is transcribed as the "Tsin-tsiu dialekt." It is uncertain which term "Tsin-tsiu" transcribes, unless it was an attempt to give a Hokkien term explaining "Chincheo." Notably, within Quanzhou prefecture and directly adjacent to the historic city across the Jin River lies Jinjiang, called in Hokkien 晉江 (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chìn-kang; Tâi-lô: Tsìn-kang), now a county-level city. Jinjiang (Hokkien: 晉江; Chìn-kang) shares its name with the Jin River (Hokkien: 晉江; Chìn-kang), which lies between historic Quanzhou to its west and north of Jinjiang; both the river and the county-level city take their name from the Jin dynasty (晉朝), when the earliest Min-speaking Chinese settlers from the Min River area settled the Jin River banks around 284 AD. The character 州 (or Hokkien: 州/洲; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chiu) originally referred to alluvial islands in rivers or at river mouths, which geographically describes historic Quanzhou's position between the Jin River and the Luoyang River. Similarly, Zhangzhou (漳州; Chiang-chiu) also uses 州 (chiu), with 漳 (Chiang) referring to the old name of the Jiulong River (Hokkien: 九龍江; Kiú-liông-kang), which surrounds historic Zhangzhou.

Its Arabic name Zaiton or Zayton (Arabic: زيتون, meaning "olive" [fruit or tree]), once common in English, means "[City] of Olive."