Fuzhou
For the city in Jiangxi province, see Fuzhou, Jiangxi. (;
BUC:
Hók-ciŭ;
EFEO: Fou-Tcheou; also seen as
Foochow or
Fuchow) is the provincial seat and the largest
prefecture-level city of
Fujian province,
People's Republic of China. It is also referred to as Rongcheng 榕城 which means "city of banyon trees."
Its GDP was ¥31582 (ca. US$3800) per capita in 2003, ranked no. 21 among 659 Chinese cities.
The exact foundation date of this city is not known. When
Yue to the north of Fujian was annexed by
Chu in
306 BC, a branch of the royal family of the defeated Yue fled Fujian and became the
Minyue (闽越) tribe.
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 name has changed many times, but the city has been continuously occuppied since 202 BC and has never suffered major destruction by wars or natural disasters.
The Minyue was annexed by Han in
110 BC and became a part of China, and 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). During
Tang Dynasty (
725 AD), it started to be called Fuzhou.
More immigrants arrived from the north in
892 AD when the
Tang Dynasty collapsed. The Wang family managed to established a kingdom called
Min (
909 –
947 AD) with its capital in Fuzhou. Min is still used as another name for the province of
Fujian, in names of dialects 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 than the Chinese capital.
The emperor of the
Song Dynasty ordered 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 here to live and work. Among them were
Zhu Xi, the most celebrated Chinese philosopher after Confucius, and Xin Qiji (辛弃疾), the greatest composer of
ci (a specialized form of poem). After them came
Marco Polo, who
transcribed the
placename in
Italian as
Fugiu according to the local dialect.
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 probably the oldest existing wooden structure in China.
Between 1405 and 1433 AD, the Chinese (Ming) navy fleet, led by
Zheng He, sailed from Fuzhou to the Indian Ocean seven times; on three occasions the fleet landed in the East coast of Africa. Before the last sailing, Zheng erected a stele dedicated to Goddess Tian-Fei near the
seaport.
In the 19th century,
Lin Zexu, a native of Fuzhou, led an unsuccessful attempt to resist the British fleet at Canton Bay, and Lin was exiled to the Russian border. At the end of the
First Opium War, Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese
treaty ports opened by the
Treaty of Nanjing (signed in
1842).
Lin Zexu died on November 22, 1850 at age of 66.
On November 8,
1911, revolutionaries staged an uprising in Fuzhou. After an overnight street battle, the Qing (Manchu) army surrendered. On November 22,
1933, the leaders of the 19th army set up a short-lived Republic of China (中華共'國) in Fuzhou (compare the name to Chiang's "
Republic of China" (中華民國), which literally means "People's State of China"); it collapsed in two months.
See also:
Battle of FoochowFuzhou, also known as the City of Banyan after the many Banyan trees that dot the city landscape, may not be as rich in history as some other ancient Chinese cities but still boasts a fair number of historical sights.
*West Lake (an artificial lake built in
282 AD)
*Hualin Temple (founding date uncertain)
*Dizang Temple (founded in
527 AD)
*Xichan Temple (founded in
867 AD)
*Wu Ta (Black Pagoda) (originally built in
799 AD, rebuilt in
936 AD)
*Bai Ta (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 (founded in
915 AD)
*Gu Shan (Drum Mountain)
*
Tacoma, Washington*
Nagasaki, Japan*
Gunsan, South Korea*
George, South Africa*
Fujian Normal University (福建师范大学) (founded in 1907)
*Fuzhou University (福州大学)
*Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (福建农林大学)
*Fujian Medical University (福建医科大学)
*
Fujian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (福建中医学院)
*Minjiang University (闽江学院)
*Fujian University of Technology (福建工程学院)
Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.
*
Min Dong language*
Fuzhou dialect*
Government website of Fuzhou (in Simplifed Chinese)
*
An early history of Fujian and Fuzhou (Chinese)
