Hui'an County 惠安县

Setting and history

Luojiang District (洛江区) lies to the west, Quangang (泉港) to the north, and Jinjiang (晋江) faces the county across Quanzhou Bay. The highest peak is Dawu Mountain (大雾山), at 789 metres, and the climate is subtropical and maritime. The county government describes it as a hilly seaboard with poor farmland.

Hui'an was split from Jinjiang in 981 and named for the phrase "benefit and pacify the people". Its seat, Luocheng (螺城), takes its name from its site on the sunny side of Luo Hill (螺山). Since 2010 the towns of Luoyang (洛阳), Dongyuan (东园), Zhangban (张坂) and the Baiqi Hui ethnic township (百崎回族乡) have been run by the Quanzhou Taiwanese Investment Zone (泉州台商投资区), though they still belong to Hui'an on paper.

What to see

Chongwu Ancient City (崇武古城), in Chongwu town (崇武镇), was built from 1387 to 1394 by Zhou Dexing (周德兴) as a garrison against Japanese pirates. Its granite wall, about 2.45 kilometres long and 7 metres high, has four gates, and Chinese Wikipedia calls it the most complete surviving granite coastal walled town in China. Pirates took it in 1558, Qi Jiguang (戚继光) stationed troops here from 1567, and Zheng Chenggong (郑成功) used it as a base in 1651. Inside are more than 20 temples, dozens of ancestral halls and over 200 old houses.

The tomb of Shi Lang (施琅墓) at Huangtang (黄塘) and Luoyang Bridge (洛阳桥) in Luoyang town are, with the Chongwu walls, national key protected sites. Jingfeng Temple (净峰寺) is where Li Shutong (李叔同) lived in his later years, and Qingshan Bay (青山湾) and Keshan (科山) are other local sights. Xiaozuo (小岞) has the Dongshan city site (东山城遗址).

Crafts and food

Hui'an stone carving, Hui'an women's dress and southern Fujian house-building techniques are on the national intangible heritage list. In Jingfeng (净峰), zhumuzai (猪母仔) are festive steamed cakes of glutinous-rice flour kneaded with steamed sweet potato and filled with fried, crushed red-skinned peanuts with brown and white sugar; the name means "sow and piglets", after their traditional shape. In the Wanli era Lin Liangbi (林良弼) of Tuzhai (涂寨) brought sweet-potato vines home from Fuzhou to plant; in the drought of 1597 the crop kept tens of thousands of people alive, and Hui'an has since been nicknamed the "sweet-potato county".

Highlights

• Chongwu Ancient City 崇武古城: Granite garrison town built 1387–1394 against pirates; a national key protected site.
• Tomb of Shi Lang 施琅墓: National key protected site in Huangtang town.
• Hui'an stone carving 惠安石雕: Craft on the national intangible heritage list.
• Jingfeng zhumuzai 净峰猪母仔: Steamed glutinous-rice and sweet-potato cakes filled with peanuts and sugar.