Quanzhou is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, People's Republic of China.

It was visited by both Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta; both travelers praised it as one of the most prosperous and glorious cities in the world.

It was the naval base from which the Mongol attacks on Japan and Java were primarily launched and a cosmopolitan center with Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches, including a Catholic cathedral and Franciscan friaries.

Quanzhou (also known as Zayton or Zaiton in British and American historical sources) is the atonal pinyin romanization of the city's Chinese name 泉州, using its pronunciation in the Mandarin dialect.

[26][27] Variant transcriptions from the Arabic name include Caiton,[28] Çaiton,[28] Çayton,[28] Zaytún,[12] Zaitûn,[7] Zaitún,[8] and Zaitūn.

Along with Xiamen and Zhangzhou to its south and Putian to its north, it makes up Fujian Province's Southern Coast region.

[36] Wang Guoqing [zh] (王國慶) used the area as a base of operations for the Chen State before he was subdued by the Sui general Yang Su in the AD 590s.

Its founder, Liu Congxiao, the Prince of Jinjiang and Jiedushi (military governor) of Qingyuan Circuit, vigorously expanded overseas trade and city development.

In 978, Chen Hongjin, the Jiedushi of Pinghai Circuit, was forced to surrender to the Northern Song to avoid war and ravage.

Already connected to inland Fujian by roads and canals, Quanzhou grew to international importance in the first century of the Northern Song.

[46] Frankincense was such a coveted import that promotions for the trade superintendents at Guangzhou and Quanzhou were tied to the amount they were able to bring in during their terms in office.

A 1206 report listed merchants from Arabia, Iran, the Indian subcontinent, Sumatra, Cambodia, Brunei, Java, Champa, Burma, Anatolia, Korea, Japan and the city-states of the Philippines.

[42] One of its customs inspectors, Zhao Rugua, completed his compendious Description of Barbarian Nations c. 1225, recording the people, places, and items involved in China's foreign trade in his age.

[8] In the mid-1320s Friar Odoric noted the town's two Franciscan friaries, but admitted the Buddhist monasteries were much larger, with over 3000 monks in one.

[8] Between 1357 and 1367 the Yisibaxi Muslim Persian garrison started the Ispah rebellion against the Yuan dynasty in Quanzhou and southern Fujian due to increasingly anti-Muslim laws.

Arabic official Yawuna [zh] (那兀纳) assassinated Amir ad-Din in 1362 and took control of the Muslim rebel forces.

They both were murdered by another Muslim called Nawuna in 1362 so he then took control of Quanzhou and the Ispah garrison for five more years until his defeat by the Yuan authorities.

Emigrants fleeing the persecution rose to prominent positions throughout Southeast Asia, spurring the development of Islam on Java and elsewhere.

Mosques and other buildings with foreign architecture were almost all destroyed and the Yuan imperial soldiers killed most of the descendants of Pu Shougeng and mutilated their corpses.

[49] The Wokou, who came from many different ethnicities, including Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, forced Quanzhou's Superintendency of Trade to close completely in 1522.

Violent large scale clan fights with the thousands of non-native families from Guangdong who were deported to Quanzhou city by the Qing immediately occurred.

[8] Odoric of Pordenone was responsible for relocating the relics of the four Franciscans martyred at Thane in India in 1321 to the mission in Quanzhou.

[58] Jinjiang also preserves the Cao'an monastery (草庵寺), originally constructed by Manicheans under the Yuan but now used by New Age spiritualists, and a Confucian Memorial Hall (文庙, Wenmiao).

Around the "Southern Min triangle area," which includes Quanzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou, locals all speak the Hokkien language.

Historically Quanzhou exported black tea, camphor, sugar, indigo, tobacco, ceramics, cloth made of grass, and minerals.

There is a passenger ferry terminal in Shijing, Nan'an, Fujian, with regular service to the Shuitou Port in the ROC-controlled Kinmen Island.

Passenger trains from China terminated at the Quanzhou East Railway Station, a few kilometers northeast of the center of the city.

Colleges and universities with Undergraduate education: Vocational school: Quanzhou is listed as one of the 24 famous historic cultural cities first approved by the Chinese government.

[58] Notable Historical and cultural sites (the 18 views of Quanzhou as recommended by the Fujian tourism board) include the Ashab Mosque and Kaiyuan Temple mentioned above, as well as: Notable Modern cultural sites include: Relics from Quanzhou's past are preserved at the Maritime[58] or Overseas-Relations History Museum.

[76] The old city center preserves "balcony buildings" (骑楼; qílóu), a style of southern Chinese architecture from the Republican Era.