I recently came from a trip to Fujian where I stayed in Quanzhou for four days. This allowed me to visit 10 component sites leaving only the farthest ones out. Taking the recommendation of earlier reviews, I checked out the wind-praying inscriptions at Jiurishan upon arriving at the railway station. An AAAAA tourist attraction, the site is equipped with a luggage storage facility, which makes such arrangement convenient. Technically, Jiurishan is officially considered as the very starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, so it was good to start here. While the site does not have entrance fees, the two other "sacred mountains" of Quanzhou namely, Quinyuanshan (Stone statue of Lao Tze) and Lingshan (Islamic Tombs) require a steep 75RMB entrance fee each! Luckily, the ticket offices recognize the ICOMOS card, so I was able to enter for free. These three scenic spots, of which Quinyuanshan is in fact a sprawling national park that can easily take a day to explore, provide pleasant respites from the busy city. View points in Quinyuanshan offer amazing views of modern Quanzhou, too. What makes China enjoyable is the ease of transportation with their Alipay that already contains the Didi Travel app -- one cannot complain in paying only eight Dollars in covering a distance of 12 kilometers, for example. We used the old city as our base for the first two days, staying close to Kaiyuan Temple. This allows easy explorations to the temple and its historic block, and the adjoining Relic Site of the Southern Clan Office, which although already equipped with a decent site marker is still largely an empty space used as a parking lot. An exhibition hall, however, is currently being reworked promising it to be a more rewarding site to visit in the future. The neighborhood, however, is enjoyable to walk around in, and if one pays close attention, one can be rewarded with discovering Song and Yuan spolia randomly imbedded in some walls (see photo). Also interesting are the histories of Ming officials' mansions, the alley of historic postal and freight services buildings, the city's marionette theater, and lesser temples that are nationally-protected and bestowed with local markers. Technically, they all comprise the old city core zone.

On one morning, I headed for the Estuary Docks, Meishan and Wenxing. They are approximately one kilometer apart on a quiet landscaped esplanade, and remained in active use until the late 20th century. Low tide meant that the docks can be appreciated in their full extent, otherwise half of the structures would be under water. The docks are of high personal interest to me as these were the departure points of most of the porcelain items that are now found in many museums in the Philippines. I can only imagine that my humble collection of locally excavated Song dynasty Cizao jarlets left the mainland from these docks. Across the Estuary Docks is Zhewhu Temple complex. Focusing on Wenxing Temple that is dedicated to folk civil/military deities and Guanyin, its foreyard contains the site of one the most prized archaeological recoveries in Quanzhou, the remains of a Song dynasty Fuchuan ship that is now in a museum. Beside the excavation site is the statue of Marco Polo, one of the icons of the Silk Road. Moving forward, the lower part of the old city contains the relic site of the Deiji Gate, the Thean Hou Temple (a very lovely and lively site. At the back of the main hall of the temple complex is a rare intact Song dynasty painting on wood! The second hall also contains an exhibition of antique Mazu statues), and the site of the Shunji Bridge -- while not as complete and charming as the other stone bridges, it is historically the most important transportation infrastructure constructed to facilitate trade between Quanzhou and the southern trading and manufacturing centers. When compared to older photos, it looks like the ruined bridge has even sustained recent significant damages. Walking along the historic commercial corridors of the city leads to Qingjing Mosque, dubbed as one of the Four Great Mosques of China's southern coast (some sources say that the correct name is Masjid Al-Ashab, and there are questions as to whether this is the same as the original Qingjing Mosque or not). It is not a busy place at all and the information boards (of which Quanzhou is very good at) allows satisfactory site interpretation, so the small entrance fee is worth it. Consciously walking along the Bagua ditch, one can notice that the canals and stone bridges --of which 174 were built in the city during the Song and Yuan dynasties-- are also very old. The extensive Confucius Temple and School nearby is a good site to reflect on successive architectural touches from the Song to Qing dynasties. It also contains the main WHS marker, as well as an excellent exhibition on the maritime trading history of the city in both side galleries. If you do not have the spare time to visit any of the museums in Quanzhou, the exhibition here delivers a good summary of the city's heritage.      

Moving along Middle Zhongshan Road (flanked by rows of cohesive Republican-era buildings) towards Kaiyuan Temple introduces you to a more recent side of the city. There is a church, the iconic yet odd-looking clock tower, old tea shops, among others. Kaiyuan Temple has two stone pagodas, regarded as the tallest and some of the oldest in China. The realization that they are older than the city of Beijing brings about greater appreciation and awe. There is a legend about their constructions too, and it might be good to add it in the "Connections". The two other inscribed stone pagodas outside the old city are equally majestic especially given their settings, but none can beat the view of Kaiyuan's twin stone pagodas at sunset as seen from a roof-top balcony of VeeVee Cafe fronting Kaiyuan Temple; for some reason, despite the crowd and the massive number of dressed-up locals having their pictorials, the cafe we went to did not have any other guest going up, so we had the balcony all to ourselves on that very fine day! The treasured five Buddha statues in the Mahavira Hall of the temple are pre-Song dynasty. The colorful angels, another good exponents of the blending of cultures, capping the columns inside are interesting. There are Hindu temple spolia in the hall, where two Hindu stone pillars with images of Vishnu, Shiva, and Garuda at the back are protectively encased in glass. In the western stone pagoda, a seemingly out-of-place panel portraying the Monkey King (Hanuman) had been snuck in during its restoration that was supervised by an Indian monk. A replica of the Monkey King is displayed on the ground not so far away. Apparently, even Thean Hou Temple has a pair of Hindu stone pillars as well that can easily be missed (Furthermore, there are other smaller temples that have some Hindu spolia, which makes one wonder what happened to these Yuan dynasty temples and where they stood in the city before. There are not much information on that). A revered 1,200 year old mulberry tree in the temple grounds is symbolically linked to the age-old tradition of Chinese silk production that gave the name Silk Road and the origin of the temple ground as a former mulberry orchard.  

On the last day, we stayed at Holliday Inn Express in the outskirt of the old city, where we were given a room that has a direct view of the East Lake, the museum, and Lingshan. We used this as the base in exploring the other sites, of which the holy Islamic Tombs and the well-curated Quanzhou Maritime Museum lie within walking distance. Aside from the holy Islamic tombs, Lingshan also houses the ancient tombs of the Ding clan, wealthy Hui Muslim merchants who made tremendous fortunes by trading along the Silk Road. The Quanzhou Maritime Museum, on the other hand, should not be mistaken as a supplementary site to visit; it is definitely a must-see. After seeing an in-depth documentary on the maritime Silk Road featuring a Yuan dynasty Christian tombstone that carefully incorporate various cultural elements suggesting the harmonious existence of many religions, I told myself that I have to see it in person. The museum is also perhaps the best place to appreciate the under-represented Catholic and Nestorian traditions in Quanzhou through its displayed artifacts. The museum does not disappoint, and there is even an exhibition on elusive Manichaeism, a vast collection of ship models, of export ceramics, and of relocated Islamic tombstones. One can see here as well the statue of the other great traveler Ibn Battuta. Along with that of Marco Polo, they are thoughtful memorials to the key figures from whom we owe much of our knowledge on the cultures and societies along the Silk Road (The other great Traveler Zheng He, on the other hand, is represented by his 14th century stelae found at the Islamic Tombs. In fact, the voyage of the legendary Sinbad --a character believed to have been inspired by Zheng He and is originally a Muslim Chinese figure until he was corrupted in the West circa 1700s-- started from this wealthy port). I have been fortunate as well to have been given here a well-prepared promotional book on their attempt to have Quanzhou listed as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Still, the best souvenir I secured from this visit is a limited production signed Dehua jade white-grade porcelain (Blanc de Chine) of a stylized cattle by proclaimed master of ceramic art Zheng Jianbing of Quanzhou. 

Overall, despite the rejections on Criteria II and III, which I personally believe the site has been able to demonstrate, Quanzhou can be considered among the multi-cultural World Heritage Sites belonging to the highest order. 

Photos (clockwise): A spolia from a Hindu temple imbedded in a wall between Kaiyuan Temple and the Relic Site of the Southern Clan Office; the Islamic Tombs with visiting Muslim pilgrims; the Wenxing estuary dock at low tide; a Yuan dynasty Christian tombstone in Quanzhou Maritime Museum.