A thousand years ago, Quanzhou was one of the greatest ports in the world, the place Marco Polo called Zaitun, where ships from Persia, Arabia, India and Southeast Asia came to trade for silk, tea and porcelain. The ceramics that filled those ships were made in kilns in the hills around the city, and the Cizao kilns, near Jinjiang, were among the most important. Long dragon kilns, built up the slopes of the hills, were fired with wood, producing huge quantities of pottery for export. Shards from Cizao have been found across Asia and as far away as East Africa. Since 2021 the kiln sites have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.
The site today includes the excavated remains of kilns, with their long, sloping chambers, and a small museum displaying the bowls, plates and jars that were made here. It is a quiet place, surrounded by hills and villages, a contrast to the bustle of the modern city nearby.
Quanzhou itself is fascinating, with temples, mosques and churches reflecting its cosmopolitan past. The Kaiyuan temple, with its twin stone pagodas, is one of the finest in southern China, and the Qingjing mosque, founded in the early eleventh century, is one of the oldest in the country. The great stone bridges of the Song era, Luoyang and Anping, still cross the estuaries, the latter stretching for over two kilometres.
Jinjiang is now a busy industrial city, famous for its shoe and sportswear factories, and the roads around it are crowded with trucks, cars and electric scooters. Riding a motorcycle in China as a foreign visitor is difficult: you will generally need a Chinese licence, and many cities restrict or ban motorcycles in their centres. If you are travelling here, it may be easier to hire a car with a driver or use public transport.
The food in the region is excellent, with seafood, noodles and dim sum. Try oyster omelette or Quanzhou's famous noodle soups. The weather is subtropical: hot and humid in summer, with typhoons possible from July to September; mild in winter. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons for exploring.