Fengze District 丰泽区

Setting and landscape

The district reaches from Dayang Mountain (大阳山) in the north to the mouth of the Jin River in the south, and faces Quanzhou Bay (泉州湾) and the Taiwan Strait to the southeast. Across the Luoyang River lies Hui'an (惠安县); Licheng District (鲤城区) and Nan'an (南安市) adjoin it to the west, Jinjiang (晋江市) lies across the Jin River to the south, and Luojiang District (洛江区) to the north. It covers about 130 square kilometres, with 21 kilometres of coastline.

History

Fengze was created in June 1997, when the State Council split it off from Licheng with four subdistricts, three towns and the Qingyuan farm. The name comes from the Fengze sluice gate (丰泽斗门), a Song-dynasty water-control work in the area. From 718 most of the ground lay in Jinjiang County, with a western strip in Nan'an; from 1985 it was all in Licheng District.

What to see

Qingyuan Mountain (清源山), 615 metres high, gives its name to a 5A-rated national scenic area of 62 square kilometres in three sections: Qingyuan Mountain, Jiuri Mountain (九日山) and Lingshan (灵山). It holds more than 600 cliff inscriptions and large Tang-to-Yuan stone figures, among them Laojun Rock (老君岩), described by the district government as the largest surviving Song-dynasty Taoist stone statue in China. Its Islamic holy tombs (伊斯兰教圣墓) are the graves of two companions of the Prophet who sailed from Arabia to Quanzhou in the 7th century.

On the south slope of Wansui Hill (万岁山) at Fashi (法石), the Zhenwu Temple (真武庙) faces west, with a view southwest over the lower Jin River. Its main hall dates from the Song and was rebuilt in the Qing, and in 2021 it was one of 22 Quanzhou sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The district government names Houzhu port (后渚港) as the eastern starting point of the ancient maritime Silk Road.

Local customs

The Xunpu women's customs (蟳埔女习俗) of Xunpu (蟳埔), Jinqi (金崎) and other communities in Donghai subdistrict (东海街道) have been national intangible heritage since 2008. Women wear a flower headdress called zanhuawei (簪花围) and the houses are built with large oyster shells (蚵壳厝) that, according to the national heritage list, were carried back by ocean-going ships in the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Getting oriented

Quanzhou station on the Fuzhou–Xiamen railway is in the district, and Chinese Wikipedia describes Fengze as the district with the most universities in Quanzhou, among them Huaqiao University (华侨大学) and Quanzhou Normal University (泉州师范学院).

Highlights

• Qingyuan Mountain 清源山: 62-square-kilometre scenic area with Laojun Rock and more than 600 cliff inscriptions.
• Fashi Zhenwu Temple 真武庙: Temple whose main hall was founded in the Song, looking over the lower Jin River; part of the Quanzhou World Heritage inscription of 2021.
• Xunpu village 蟳埔: Community known for flower headdresses and oyster-shell houses; national intangible heritage since 2008.
• Houzhu port 后渚港: Named by the district government as the eastern starting point of the ancient maritime Silk Road.