fujian’s general information

 

 

history

   fujian is also referred to as  min for short. in 221 b.c. ,when  chin shihuang unified china ,the minzhong prefecture was set to govern dongye which now is the city of fuzhou. this is the first time that fujian,,as an  administrative  division, appeared on chinese territory. in  the 21^st year of kaiyuan reign in the tang dynasty(the a.d. 733 years) , the word fujian came into being when fujian governor, an official position, was initially created to strengthen the border defence. during the five generation times, military governors established their own separatist regimes, fujian also is one of the regimes, named “min country’’. its boundary was basic the same as the present provincial boundary. in the north song dynasty, fujian has the jurisdiction over six zhous (they are fu,jian, quan, zhang, ting and nanjian) and two juns (they are shaowu and xinghua).in the south song dynasty, fujian set up one provincial government and was divided into one fu, five zhou ,and two juns. all these fu, zhou ,and jun are almost the same as prefecture, hence the name  ba  min  eight prefecture of  fujian. (the word ba  means  eight)..  in the first year of hongwu  regimes  in the ming dynasty,  the administrative division was changed into  eight  fus,  they are fuzhou, jianlin, yanping, shaowu, xinghua, quanzhou, zhangzhou and tingzhou.. the division was still kept in the qing dynasty. the 1911 revolution overthrew the feudal  monarchy to build republic of  china, and that was  the beginning sets of fujian province. in the second year of the republic of china, the administrative division system of fu、 zhou　was replaced by the three levels system of shen, dao, xian and there are 4 daos and 61xians in the province.

the people's government  of  fujian province was set up on august 24,1949. at that time the entire province set up  2 cities, 8 special areas and had jurisdiction over 67 counties. . in 1951 two cities, quanzhou and zhangzhou, were additionally built under the leadership of the special commissioned   officers. hereafter more than 20 years, the administrative division system has experienced slight adjustments for several times. since the reform and opening policy, according to national related regulations, combining with the provincial condition, fujian has adjusted the administrative division and improved some counties in bigger scales with developed economy to be county- class cities. in 1999, all the special districts were changed into municipal cities which were subdivided into several districts, therefore becoming the system of municipality promoting county. by the end of 2007, fujian has 9 administrative municipal cities , fuzhou, xiamen, putian, shangming, quanzhou, zhangzhou, nanping, longyan, and ningde ,under its direct supervision, which are subdivided  further into 26 districts 14 county-lever cities and 45 counties (including jinmen county).

     

natural condition

fujian is located between north latitudes 23°33′ to  28°20’,  and east longitudes  115°50’ to 120°40’. the total area of territory is 124,000 square kilometers, which take up 1.3% of the total of china and occupies the 23^rd place in the nation. on the east, fujian is closed to the east china sea and the west china sea ,facing taiwan province to the east across the taiwan strait and bordering zhejiang province on the northeast, jiangxi province on the northwest across the range of wuyi mountains and guangdong province on the southwest respectively. in terms of sea transportation, fujian is one of the provinces in china which lie nearest to southeast asia, west asia, east africa and oceania. the special geographical  position  has made  fujian  be  an important business  trade center  and  cultural origin place  in  the history, such as the silk road on the sea, zheng he’s voyage to southeast asia and arabic nations and islamism. it is an important passageway for the association between china and the world outside.

with its towering peaks and undulating hills, green valleys and scattered basins, fujian has long been known as ‘mountain country of  the southeast.’approximately 82.4% area of fujian is covered with hills and mountains, which occupies the first place among the  coastal provinces on the southeast. huanggan mountain, 2158 meters above sea level, is the highest peak in the southeast of the main land. the topography of fujian slopes gradually from the northwest to the southeast with a saddle-shape- cross section. wuyi mountain is the watershed between the fujian and jiangxi waterway systems, it is also the origin place of minjiang river, the biggest river in fujian. many mountain passes, popularly called ‘guang’, ‘ai’ or ‘kou’, running vertically or slant with its mountains, have been the natural passageway and important military junction among 3 provinces, fujian, jiangxi and zhejiang since the ancient time, now, they are also the passageway for the cold air from the north going to the south. the plains in fujian mainly disperse in the coastal region, among them, the four bigger ones are fuzhou plain, zhangzhou plain, quanzhou plain and xinhua plain.

fujian is one of the most important maritime provinces of china with the direct length of its coastline as long as 535 kilometers, and the curve length 3752 kilometers, the curving rate of coastline is 1:7.01, occupying the first place in the nation. fujian boasts a vast expanse of seawater with

 

an area of 136,300 square kilometers. the meandering coastline and numerous islands make a large number of estuaries and bays. now there are total 125 bays and estuaries with different sizes, among them , from the north to the south , the important and sizable ones are shacheng seaport, funingwan, shanshawan, sandu’ao, louyuanwan, fuzhou seaport, meizhouwan, xiamen seaport and dongshanwan. these bays are usually ice-free and silt-free with excellent water depth and extensive harbor areas, protecting by the islands dotted on the mouth of the bays surrounding by the peninsula on their two sides. thus the  small-mouth-big-belly geography position offers a good protective screen to make calm, tranquil and excellent bays, the conditions of the following six bays are especially outstanding, xiamen seaport, shachen seaport, meizhouwan, luoyuanwan, sandu’ao and dongshanwan.it has 1404 islands scattering along its coast with a total area of 1,200 square kilometers. these islands usually have short distance to the land with good fishing grounds nearby.  the province has an offshore fishing area of 125,100 square kilometers which offer an advantage for the exploitation of offshore fishery.

fujian, closing to the north of the tropic of cancer, is located in subtropical zone and enjoys a clear marine climate by backing mountains and facing sea. in 2007, its annual average temperature ranges between 15.8℃ to 22.6℃, the average annual rainfall ranges between 932.7 to 2265.2 millimeters, the annual sunshine time ranges between 1394.8 hours to 2085.7 hours. usually during a year, the hottest time is in july in most regions, the coldest time is in february in the coastal region and in january in the inland.

 

culture and society

fujian has the unique culture charm.  it  was one of the earliest provinces to open for foreign trade in the national history. as early as in han dynasty, fujian has begun the overseas business

after the three-kingdom period and jin dynasty, the transportation between fujian to south asina developed,  there is the record that at that time fujian native has gone overseas from the east of the province. in the northern and southern dynasties, the economy in the south of  fujian has further development and the foreign trade through sea  has been strengthened. the quanzhou seaport has been a foreign trade port in sui dynasty, during period from tang dynasty to song dynasty, it was flourishing to be the beginning place of the ‘ silk road on the road’ and  yuan dynasty was the heyday of it by being called ‘the biggest port in the ancient orient ‘ the trade between china and  south asian was usually via the coastal seaports in fujian. most handicrafts, silk, sugar, paper and gold produced in domestic were exported through quanzhou seaport and the commodities from south asian countries, such as arab, india were also imported through quanzhou seaport. in 1807,with the establishment of fujian city’s office for oceangoing ships in quanzhou, fujian’s foreign trade was under the administration of the nation.

fujian is one of the major hometowns of overseas chinese, keep a history of emigration and settlement abroad as long as 1,200 years from tang dynasty. up to now the number of overseas chinese of fujian origin is over 10 million distributing about 160 countries and regions in the world. among them, over one million constant residents in hong kong and macao and about 80% of taiwanese are fujian descendants. among “the first 500 enterprises of international chinese business men” announced by the ‘hong kong asia weekly’ in every year, there are about 100 enterprises’ stock controlled by the businessmen of fujian origin.

fujian was one of the major old chinese soviet areas in china. among the 28 chinese soviet areas established by the soviet power in the revolutionary period, there were about 15 ones in fujian, distributing in 62 countries. at that time, more than 100,000 people joined the red army or guerrilla forces and 30,000 people took part in the long march.. the fujian  people  kept on struggling for the national liberation, therefore they won the praise of “never falling red flag”.

fujian is a multi-ethnic province. according to the statistic information of the fifth national census in 2000, there are total 54 ethnic groups in fujian, besides the han majority, the 53 minority ethnic groups take up 1.7% of the total population of the province.. among the minority ethnic groups, the she minority has the biggest population of 375,200. fujian is the province in mainland which has the largest population of the she minority and the gaoshan minority, fujian is also the birthplace of the hui minority.

fujian is also the place where various religions have coexisted peacefully. at present, major religions practiced in fujian include buddhism, taoism, islam, catholicism and protestantism. in addition, .fujian has its folk belief with deeply local characteristic, such as mazuism,the belief in mazu, is very influential. the meiizhou mazu was worshipped as the sea goddess, the queen in heaven. there are more than 1,000 mazu temples with nearly 140 million of followers in the world, among them with 14 millions of believers in taiwan. these years, more than millions of taiwan compatriots have come to the meizhou mazu temple to have celebration activities. the other folk belief,such as chen jinggu, zushigong, the emperor baoshen and the hornor king guangze, have a mass of disciples overseas.

fujian is a remarkable place where men of talents come out in succession to made contribution in the history of china, like the educationist zhuxi, the founder of the world forensic medicine songci, the calligraphers huang daozhou and caixiang, the national heroes zhen chengong and lin zhexu, patriotic overseas chinese, the famous thinker and translator in modern time, yanfu and linshu,  the leader of the patriotic overseas chinese,  chen jiageng.  among the academicians in chinese academy of science and

 

chinese academy of project, which were present he highest honor in the natural science field in our country, there are about 100 ones of fujian origin.

 

resource

land resources

in fujian, more than 80% of the area is occupied by the mountains and hills, which leads to the impression that there are more peaks than fields in the region. the types of cultivated land are quite different. basically, it can be divided into the paddy field and the dry farmland, then the paddy field can be further divided as rang field. long field and rie field, the dry field can be further divided as hillside fields and terraced fields. the paddy field is major in the cultivated land, taking up 80.8%, while the dry farmland is only 19.2% . the staple food crops and field cash crops are the major products. the change range of the cultivated land’s area is big, which has been reduced year by year since the establishment of our country and has the tendency of continuous reduction. in 1952, fujian’s  cultivated land  totals 1,468,130hectares, per person 1.75 acreage, but by the end of 2005,the cultivated land were only 1,129,020 hectares in total, per person merely 0.48 acreage. fujian is one of the provinces which has the least cultivated land in average per person.

mineral resource

fujian is rich in mineral resource. concluded to the survey , among 35 kinds of major minerals, there are 11 kinds of minerals, which have plenty of hold reserves in 2010, such as lead zinc, key, niobium, tantalum, quartz land for casting mould, standard sand, limestone, granite and barite, and 6kinds of minerals, which can pledged of hold reserves, such as steel, rare-earth metal, fluorite, kaolin, barite and ect.

forestry resource

fujian is one of  the four largest forest zones in china and has long gained the reputation as the green treasury of the south, with its forest coverage rate as high as 60.96%, ranking the first in the nation. its forest covers an area of 9,080,700 hectares, which accounts for 74.74% of the total area of fujian, mainly including the forest land, the bush forest land, the vegetables forest land, the planting area  not grown into a forest and  the non- forest land suitable for the forestation. the area of the forest land is 764,940,000 hectares, taking up 84.24% of the total forest area in the province, accounting for 4% in china. there were estimated reserve of 496.7 million cubic meters with the ranking in the seventh place in the nation. among which, the area of manmade forest is 180.4 million meter, taking up 12% of the total, ranking the first in the national. its forest is dominantly composed of timber-producing woods and the others include the bamboo grove, the economic forest, the protective forest, the new coal forest and the special timber forest and so on. now the forest in fujian are major the natural secondary forest and the planted forest. the reserve of often green foliage forest occupies 89% of the total of the province with the distribution mainly in nanping,sanmig and longyan. masson pine secondary forest is the often green coniferous forest with the broadest distribution and the biggest area in the province. the pine forest is quite common in fujian with its major part of the manual management pure crop. from zhaoan to minjiang kou, in the coastal areas of changle county, a protective forest ,dominantly composed of  beefwood was built. the bamboo in fujina overs an area of 885,200 hectares, ranking the first place in the nation and taking up 1/5 of the total of the nation. jianou, shunchang, wuyishan, saxian, yongan and ypuxi rank in the national big bamboo township. the types of bamboo in fujian are approximately hundreds of kinds, in which mao bamboo distributes the most broadly, accounts for 22% of the total national bamboo area.

biology resources

fujian is in the southeast, which located between the southasia and the middleasia . because of the best geographical conditions and the plenty of views, there are plenty of wild plant and animal resources, fujian is one of the most plenty organisms in china., there are 120 kinds of animal, more than 550 kinds of birds, 123 kinds of reptile, 46 kinds of amphibious animal, 1000 kinds of insects, 3992 kinds of trees, 68 kinds of plants, 387 kinds of pteridophyte, 486 kinds of fungus, 361 kinds of bryophyte, among which, there are 22 kinds of the first grade and animal , 137 kinds of the second grade protected animals, 7 kinds of the first grade protected plants and 45 kinds of the second protected plants. the network of natural protected zones, which with rational district, plenty of kinds and perfection, have been founded.

water resource

fujian is one of the provinces with rich water resource. fujian boasts 663 rivers with a total length of 13,600 kilometers in its 29 water systems within its territory. its fresh water volume is 116.87billion cubic meters, taking the eighth place in china and its water resources per capital ranks the seventh in the country. its manor rivers include the minjinag river, the jiulong river, rhe tingjiang river and the jinjiang river. among them, the ming river is the biggest river in the southeast of china, by its length of 541 kilometers and covering the area of 6.09 square kilometres.

its waterpower deposit is enormous with a potential of installed generating capacity of  1.168 million kilowatts with a combined

 

capacity of over 916 billion kilowatts. experts have identified more than 1,000 sites well-suited for hydroelectric dams with an individual capacity of over 500 kilowatts each. this potential capacity ranks number one in eastern china.

aquatic resources

warm and cold ocean currents come together n the waters along fujian’s coast, where fish, shrimp and shell fish abound, making it one of china’s important fishing grounds. more than 21 species including 170 kinds of plankton have been found in its waters. there are 750 kinds of fishes in its offshore area and other aquatic products such as prawns, shellfish, aquatic plants in its shallow waters and tideland. the portion of the coastal waters covers 6.2 million hectares. the seas of fujian contain great deposits of such regenerating energies as tidal energy and wave energy, with the former taking up 40% of the total in the country and having a potential power capacity of 10 million kilowatts.

tourism resource

with it mild and moist climate and varied topography, fujian is a picturesque place with green hills and limpid waters, as well as with a long history, well-developed culture. the harmonious environment between the person and the nature offers rich tourism resource in fujian. wuyi mountain was approved by the united nation as the world natural and cultural heritage site. now , the  province has7 chinese outstanding tourism cities,4 national level historical cities,2 national level tourism vacation areas, 13 national key scenery tourist resorts, 12 national level nature protection areas, 21 national level forest parks,85 key cultural relics under the state’s preservation,44 national class a tourist regions (include 2 ones in the lever of 5a, 27 ones in the lever of 4a), 8 national geology parks,5 national botanical garden cities, 3 national environmental protection model city, 35 provincial key scenery tourist resorts, 27 provincial level nature protection areas, 55 provincial level forest parks and 381 cultural relics under the province’s preservation.

the natural landscape is beautiful, such as wuyi mountain, xiamen gulangyu isle,  quanzhou qingyuan mountain, fuding mt. taimu , tailing golden lake and so on.the fame of some artificial scenery and scenic spots spreads far and near, like luoyan bridge, the east and west pagodas, the statue of lao zi in quanzhou, jingjiang anping bridge, the city wall of chongwu, the site of gutian meeting, yongding  earthern dwellings,  nanjing earthern dwellings. there are some famous religion sceneries in fujian, like xuefeng temple, yongquan temple, kaiyuan temple, south putuo temple, the qingjing mosque, one of the five most time –honored , best-preserved and largest mosques in the islamic world, islamic holy gtaves on lingshan hill, the earliest ancient islamic tombs among the extant ones in the world, thatched-hut nunnery, the only ruined site of manicheism in the world.

now, the administration bends its efforts for the development of the tourism by introducing the ten famous tourism bands, like wuyi mountains, xiamen gulanyu isle, water nepheline, meizhou mazu culture, the hui’an women’s customs, fujian earthen dwellings, the site of gutian meeting, ningde baishuiyang prodigies and tanshishan remains and seashore volcano.

fujian own many specialties, for example, the bodiless lacquer ware in fuzhou is one of the three treasures among traditional chinese handicrafts, of which the other two are cloisonne in beijing and porcelain in jingdezhen, the shoushan stonecarving fine and glossy, the white porcelain made in dehua, the cork picture and cotton picture are creative and elegant. represented by fuzhou cuisine, min(fujian) cuisine is one of the eight major cuisines in china, the best of which includes famous dishes such as “buddha-jumping-over-the-wall” and “clam in chicken soup.” the arts in fujian is in different types, include southern music, also known as the southern melody, liyuan opera, puxian opera, sack puppet show, gaojia opera, min opera, and xiang opera. among them, liyuan opera, ganjia opera and puxian opera are usually viewed as the living cultural relics. in fujian, there are some interesting customs, like the she nationality’s wedding and the extraordinary hui’an women’s customs.