Spring Festival Trip to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou - Quanzhou (Part One)
February 15th, high-speed train from 9:12 to 10:00, from Zhangzhou Station to Quanzhou Station, the driver was already waiting for us in the underground parking lot of Quanzhou Station, and we smoothly checked into the Quanzhou Yuehua Hotel.
After a short rest at the hotel, we were ready to go out and stroll around the ancient city of Quanzhou. The hotel is about 2.5 kilometers away from the old city, so we took a taxi to the Wen Temple and started our tour from there.
Our citywalk route: Wen Temple ~ Goldfish Alley ~ Guan Gong Ancient Flavor Restaurant for lunch ~ Hao Gou Qian ~ Flower Alley ~ Zhongshan Middle Road ~ Bell Tower ~ West Street ~ Tai Kui Alley ~ West Gate of Kaiyuan Temple ~ Back to West Street ~ Xiangfeng Alley ~ Tourist Center rooftop to take pictures of the twin towers ~ Youli Tiantai Coffee Bar ~ Quanzhou Cinema East Sea Poster Wall ~ Zhongshan Middle Road ~ Dinner at Tumen Beef East, the beef rice is super delicious.
Quanzhou is the most suitable city for Citywalk I have ever visited. The Minnan ancient houses that can be seen in the streets and alleys really have a unique charm. I personally like to explore a city in the way of Citywalk, using my eyes or camera to record some different surprising moments.
⭐Wen Temple: Quanzhou Wen Temple is one of the largest Confucian temples along the southeast coast. The architecture includes the styles of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as the Minnan characteristics of stone-to-brick, sloped roofs, swallowtail ridges, etc.,
⭐Goldfish Alley: A very narrow alley with many trendy young shops, where you can see fish patterns everywhere, such as carps leaping over the dragon gate, etc.,
⭐Flower Alley: At night, the whole street is lit with horse lanterns, standing among the crowd gives a sense of time travel, and the entrance to Flower Alley is full of fresh flowers,
⭐Zhongshan Middle Road: The more than 2 kilometers long Zhongshan Road in Quanzhou is a model of Sino-Western commercial street architecture and is also the most completely preserved arcade building complex in the country. At the end of Zhongshan Middle Road is the Bell Tower, where the white bell tower and the bustling street scene complement each other,
⭐West Street: A great street to stroll, with various snacks and intangible cultural heritage projects like hairpin flower making to experience. It's super crowded during the Spring Festival,
⭐Xiangfeng Alley: An alley where you can take pictures of the west tower of Kaiyuan Temple. In the middle of the deep alley, you can see the tower body,
⭐Kaiyuan Temple: The largest Buddhist building in Fujian, with east and west towers on each side, one of the 22 ancient sites that were successfully included in Quanzhou's World Heritage application,
📷Recommended photo spots
⭐The hottest photo spot with the 'Quanzhou' sign and the twin towers, which can be shot from the rooftop of Ruibai Cloud Hotel (Quanzhou Bell Tower West Street Store), but it's not accessible now, only open to hotel guests (Picture 2)
⭐A super large 'Quanzhou' poster, located on the east wall of Quanzhou Cinema next to the Bell Tower (Picture 1)
⭐The rooftop of West Street Tourist Center, where you can overlook West Street (Picture 3), is also the best spot for shooting the twin towers,
⭐Xiangfeng Alley, the old scenery with fireworks and the thousand-year-old tower, is very feel-good for taking cultural photos (Picture 4).
Tips:
1. Before going to Quanzhou, it is recommended to watch the documentary 'Return to Cìtóng City' first, which has three episodes, each about 40 minutes, to get an understanding of the origin and cultural history of Quanzhou,
2. The main street of West Street is super crowded, it is recommended to go into the alleys, which are characteristic and quiet. It is recommended to download the app 'Xiaoyuzhou' and search for 'Going to Quanzhou', which has detailed explanations of the alleys.
Quanzhou Fu Confucian Temple was built in the late Tang Kai (976 AD) and the main structure was formed in 1137 AD. It was also renovated many times. The entire complex sits north and south, and the main building runs through the central axis. The buildings retain the stone foundation and platform foundation of the Song Dynasty, and the wooden components of the building were rebuilt according to the original appearance of the Qing Dynasty. It is commendable that the entire complex contains the architectural forms of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty. Not only is it large-scale, majestic, but also well preserved. Interestingly, Quanzhoufu Confucian Temple is not a simple Confucian Temple, but a combination of left and right temples. On the west side is the Confucian Temple part of the Confucian sacrifice, and on the east side is the Quanzhoufu Educational Architecture Palace part. It is a great contribution to the dissemination of Confucian ideas. It is reported that Quanzhou has walked out of 2,454 seniors, 8 literati and more than 20 prime ministers in history. It is really worthy of being the highest university in ancient Quanzhou.
Fuwen Temple is an important attraction in Quanzhou Ancient City, and it is also an attraction with more tourists. The Confucian Temple here is quite large. Dacheng Palace has to go in and see. There are some southern Anhui buildings around the Confucian Temple, which are also some cultural monuments. It is recommended to see. The Temple of Confucianism is doing activities recently, mostly cultural and tourism activities, and there is currently a photography exhibition on Quanzhou's world heritage in Dacheng Palace.
Quanzhou Fuwen Temple, located in Zhongshan Road, Licheng District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. The construction of the late Tang Kaiyuan was initially "Lu Siqi Temple", and the fifth generation of the late Tang Dynasty was changed to "Xuansheng Temple". The Northern Song Dynasty Taiping Xingguo period (976~984) moved to the current site, which is the largest existing scale in southeast China, including the ancient Confucian Temple complex in the four dynasties of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing.
The largest Confucian Temple building in the southeast region, the existing temple was built in the Song Dynasty, and it was repaired in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Dacheng Palace is large in scale. There are Quanzhou Education Exhibition and Quanzhou History and Culture Exhibition on both sides of the promenade. Next to it is Minglun Hall, which is the Palace of Learning. It used to be a place where students take classes. Now there are exhibitions. Very nice historical site.
The largest Confucian Temple building in Southeast China is large-scale. In addition to Dacheng Palace, there is also a school palace. It is also the branch venue of the 2016 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. There are two exhibitions on both sides of the hall, which introduce Quanzhou ancient and modern, which is quite good.