I recently visited the city of Fuzhou, just under 2 hours from my home city of Xiamen by high-speed train. I've been to Fuzhou twice before, but each time have had some different experiences and seen some different parts of the city. While I don't think Fuzhou has quite the scenic beauty of Xiamen, it does have some interesting sites, nice bar/entertainment areas, and unique historical landmarks.
One morning, I visited the Luoxing Pagoda which is a little bit out of the city. The 7-story pagoda was originally built in the Northern Song Dynasty, but destroyed in an earthquake and later restored during the Ming Dynasty.
 |
| This pagoda also functioned as a lighthouse in days gone by |
In addition to the pagoda, there's a park which contains an interesting statue (in the two photos below). I'm not sure if I understand the story behind this statue correctly since it was explained to me by a Chinese friend who had to ask some other people in Chinese and translate to English. Although something may have been lost in translation, I think the statue is of a woman whose husband was falsely convicted of a crime due to a covetous man who wanted the lovely lady to himself. The statue portrays her looking forlornly out to sea, hoping in vain for her true love's return.
I also visited a nearby museum about Fuzhou's naval history. Due to it's location, Fuzhou became a major seaport during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was the origin of expeditions by Zheng He, who led huge sailing fleets as far as Africa from 1405-1433. However, by the following Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), China's sea power had mostly evaporated and Fuzhou was one of 5 treaty ports forced upon China in 1842 after the First Opium War in which Great Britain's naval power easily outmatched China's.
Fuzhou is also known for another humiliating naval defeat in 1884 during the Battle of Fuzhou, this time to the French.
 |
| 1873 cannon made in London |
Fuzhou has long been one of China's shipbuilding centers and one of the places I visited was Mawei Ship Building, Ltd. which was opened in 1866 and continues to build large ships today. One of the original buildings remains and is used as a "cultural relic" museum of sorts, showing late 1860's ship and machinery building.
On my Fuzhou trip, I managed to see quite a bit about Fuzhou's naval history. I also spent another day at the Lin Zexu Memorial Museum and the 3 Lanes & 7 Alleys area which I may do another blog entry about in future. If you'd like to see many more larger size photos from my Fuzhou trip, feel free to take a look at my Shutterfly photo website.
Posts
Nice report David.Unfortunately I had a rather weird visit to Fuzhou two years ago. over the May holiday.But did very much like the 3 Lanes and 7 alleys area.
ReplyDeleteRuth, you always seem to have rather weird visits, lol. I've been to 3 Lanes, 7 Alleys three times now and although its quite touristy, it has a good mix of old historic buildings as well as new stores, restaurants, etc.
ReplyDelete