Cangshan District 仓山区

Setting and landscape

Across the northern branch lie the Gulou (鼓楼), Taijiang (台江), Jin'an (晋安) and Mawei (马尾) districts; the southern branch, the Wulong River (乌龙江), divides it from Minhou (闽侯县). The island is a hilly plain: hills and slopes cover about a fifth of it, and Gaogai Mountain (高盖山), 202 metres high in the middle of the island, is the highest point. Broad sandbanks form along the river, which is tidal here and flows both ways.

The climate is a south subtropical maritime monsoon type with about 1,396 millimetres of rain a year, nearly three quarters of it between April and September. A plum-rain season of around 40 days starts in mid-May, and typhoons affect the district from June to September.

History

The district's name goes back to Yantai Shan (烟台山), the low hill on its northern shore. A temple built there under the Northern Song was renamed Tianning in 1111, and at the end of the Yuan the Fuzhou authorities put a beacon tower on the summit, which gave the hill its present name. In the Hongwu reign of the Ming, salt warehouses were built at its northern foot, and the area became known as Cangqian Shan (仓前山), "the hill in front of the warehouses", shortened to Cangshan.

After the Treaty of Nanjing of 1842 opened Fuzhou as a treaty port, the district became its consular quarter: between 1844 and 1903, seventeen countries opened consulates or agencies here. A Cangshan district office was set up in 1945; the district was called Chaoyang from 1968 to 1978, and it took in the whole island in 1996.

What to see

Yantai Shan, on the south bank of the Min, is about 41.6 metres above sea level. Several countries set up consulates on it and built churches, schools and hospitals, and groups of these buildings survive. Yantai Shan Park, opened on the summit on 1 October 1964, holds the remains of the old beacon tower, and the hill was approved as a national 3A tourist attraction in 2021.

Shishan village (狮山村) at the heart of the old Linpu (林浦) settlement is protected under a Fujian historic and cultural village plan. At its entrance stands the Shangshuli stone archway (尚书里石牌坊), raised in the Longqing reign of the Ming to honour the family of Lin Han (林瀚), five of whom became ministers over three generations. Ming and Qing houses with firewall gables and the Song-dynasty Lin Bridge (林桥) stand in the village, which is closely tied to the Lianjiang Academy (濂江书院), where Zhu Xi (朱熹) taught.

Highlights

• Yantai Shan 烟台山: Low riverside hill with old consulate, church and school buildings; a 3A tourist attraction since 2021.
• Shangshuli stone archway 尚书里石牌坊: Ming archway honouring the Lin family of Linpu, with five ministers in three generations.
• Lianjiang Academy 濂江书院: Old academy tied to Linpu's Shishan village, where Zhu Xi lectured.
• Gaogai Mountain 高盖山: At 202 metres, the highest point on Nantai Island.