Architecture

The Venetian Marco Polo saw Quanzhou in its heyday during the Yuan Dynasty. He wrote: “The quantity of pepper imported there is so considerable, that what is carried to Alexandria, to supply the demand of the western parts of the world, is trifling in comparison, perhaps not more than the hundredth part. It is indeed impossible to convey an idea of the number of merchants and the accumulation of goods in this place, which is held to be one of the largest ports in the world.”

Quanzhou, located on the southeast coast of China, was a bustling commercial center on the eastern end of the maritime trade network that flourished from the 10th to 14th centuries. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Quanzhou served as a prominent window for China’s economic and cultural exchanges with the outside world, and it was also an outstanding example of a world-class port that served as an engine for maritime commerce. During that era, Quanzhou not only had comprehensive institutions and systems, incredibly prosperous overseas trade and a highly developed economy, it was also a place where Eastern and Western cultures converged and flourished. Today, the city of Quanzhou still echoes with this historical cadence. People live amongst the historical heritage, and it is here that the historical and the modern, the local and the global intersect each other.