We were very lucky to be invited by mutual friends to visit and stay in an ancient town called Quanzhou which is close to Xiamen. Our host were Linlin who teaches at Xiamen University and her friend Helen, we were also travelling with Stephen a sound and multimedia Artist from Baltimore, USA.
Some information about Quanzhou,
Quanzhou was established in 718 during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). In those days, Guangzhou was China's greatest seaport. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and Yuan Dynasty
(1279–1368), Quanzhou was one of the world's largest seaports, hosting a
large community of foreign-born inhabitants from across the Eurasian world. Today, a number of relics related to that era are preserved and exhibited in the Quanzhou Overseas Relations Museum.
Due to its reputation, Quanzhou has been called the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. From the Arabic name of the city, Zayton زيتون (alternately spelt Zaitun or Zaytun), the word satin would be coined. Zayton is also the word for olive
and the symbol of peace in the Arabic and Persian languages. Quanzhou
may have been given this title by the Muslims in honour of fact that it
was a cultural melting pot at the time due to the trade culture.
In The Travels of Marco Polo, Quanzhou (called Zayton, T'swan-Chau, or Chin-Cheu) was listed as the departure point for Marco Polo's expedition to escort the 17-year-old Mongol princess bride Kököchin to her new husband in the Mongol Ilkhanate.
Quanzhou is an amazing historical city. There are areas with very old dwellings and temples that are over a thousand years old...We visited different areas, A Budhist temple with famous towers, an Ancient Muslim Mosque (as there were Arabic people here during the great silk road period), we also went to a very nice Tea house and had food in two amazing vegetarian (all you can eat) restaurants. On Saturday night we saw a puppet show...as this area is famous area for puppetry. The next day we visited some puppet makers and I brought an amazing puppet head of The Monkey King, from the story Journey to the West. That I saw as a TV series as a kid, and that I am making a video work about...
Linlin, her son and Helen are such wonderful and friendly people to be around, and made us feel very at home and we felt lucky to see this special Chinese Region through their eyes, as they grew up here. Stephen is also great to be around and is a very good conversationalist. So we thank them all very much...
