CH'UAN-CHOU

also spelled Chan-chow, Pinyin Quanzhou port and city, eastern coastal Fukien sheng (province), China. Ch'an-chou is situated on the north bank of the Hsi River at the head of Chin River, facing the Taiwan Strait. A Ch'an-chou prefecture was established in AD 618 much farther north. The only sizable settlement in the present area was Nan-an county-some 12.5 miles (20 km) up the Hsi River valley-which had been set up in the 6th century by the Ch'en regime (557-589). The present Ch'an-chou was founded in 700 as Wu-jung-chou, changed its name to Ch'an-chou in 711, and was established as a county seat; it was a convenient administrative centre for the scattered Chinese settlements in the area, under the name Chin-chiang, in 718. The prefecture of Ch'an-chou was promoted to a superior prefecture under the Ming (1368-1644) and Ch'ing (1644-1911) dynasties. After 1911, under the Chinese republic, it reverted to county status under its old name Chin-chiang. During the later T'ang period (618-907), Ch'an-chou began to develop into a major seaport and a centre of foreign trade, rivaling Canton and Hanoi. Many Persians and Arabs settled there. During the 10th century, first under the independent Fukienese kingdom of Min (909-944), then under local warlords (944-960), and finally under the reunified empire of Sung (960-1279), Ch'an-chou remained a centre of foreign trade and for the manufacture of oceangoing ships, which gradually enabled Chinese from Fukien to replace Arabs as chief carriers in the trade with the Middle East. Between 742 and 1162, Ch'an-chou's population increased more than 10-fold, and it soon outstripped Canton in volume of trade. By the 13th century the city was said to have 500,000 inhabitants, including numerous Arabs, who had their own merchant quarter on the waterfront. Under the Yan (Mongol) dynasty (1279-1368), it was China's greatest port and was renowned throughout the world, being known to the 13th-century Venetian traveler Marco Polo and to the 14th-century Muslim traveler Ibn Battutah as Zaytun, a rendering of the common name for the city, Tz'u-t'ung-ch'eng. After the beginning of the 15th century, however, when the Chinese withdrew from long-range trade and when the attacks of Japanese pirates put the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) on the defensive, Ch'an-chou was deeply affected. At the same time, the harbour began to silt up, and in the 17th century Fu-chou and, more particularly, the nearby port of Amoy began to rival it in both coastal and foreign trade. It gradually declined into a secondary coastal port, most of whose commerce was with Taiwan. Many people from this area emigrated either to Taiwan or elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Ch'an-chou is now a regional market and commercial centre to a large extent economically dependent upon Amoy. Its role receded still further when Amoy's rail link with the interior was completed in 1956. The city is a collection centre for local agricultural products, such as sugarcane, jute, fruit, and peanuts (groundnuts), and is a distribution centre for manufactures imported through Amoy. There is some small-scale industry, including the manufacture of porcelain, farm implements, and fertilizer, and food processing, such as sugar refining, flour milling, and oil extraction. Ch'an-chou retains many relics of its medieval prosperity, including an 11th-century stone bridge that spans the Chin River. Twin stone pagodas (1228-38) follow the design of wooden ones first built in 865 and 916. An ancient mosque and the tombs of early Muslim missionaries are preserved. A wooden ship, dating from the 12th or 13th century and excavated in 1974, occupies a special exhibition hall in the city. Pop. (1990 est.) 185,154.