The second floor of the Jinjiang Museum is devoted almost entirely to a very interesting, robust, and educational “Panorama of the History of Jinjiang” exhibit.

Here is the first set of photos, commentary, and quotes from this display….

The entrance to “The Panorama of History of Jinjiang” Exhibit:

From one of the museum’s interpretive blurbs:

Jinjiang city lies in the lower reaches of Jin River and is close to Chinese eastern sea. The city’s topology is mainly mesa and plain and it has a warm and wet climate. Early in the prehistoric period, Min and Yue ancestors were living here. After Qin and Han Dynasties, especially after Western Jin Dynasty, people from central China moved to the south and lived along the river. Thus the city was named Jinjiang. Jinjiang was officially established as a county in the sixth year of Kai Yuan years in Tang Dynasty (AD 718) and was executed at the same level with state and prefecture. After that period, Jinjiang witnessed a gradual development and expansion and has become the political, economic and culture center of Quanzhou region of China.

An ancient contraption for making dofu (tofu); looks strikingly similar to modern contraptions for making dofu:

“the stele autographed by the country magistrate of Jinjiang / unearthed in Quanzhou / the 23rd of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (AD 1544)”:

Part of an ancient water mill’s working parts:

An ancient weaving loom:

Hand-carved chairs from (I believe) the Song Dynasty:

The battle to reclaim Taiwan from the Dutch:

From another interpretive blurb:

In the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Kang Xi in Qing Dynasty (AD 1683), under the decision of Emperor Kang Xi, Shi Lang, commander-in-chief of the navy of Fujian led troops to reunify Taiwan. After Qing forces occupied Taiwan, they offered sacrifices to Zheng Chenggong Temple and made proper arrangements for the formal subordinates of Zheng Chenggong. These efforts resulted in a stable political situation of Taiwan.

More on this:

At the joint period of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jinjiang was the military base established by Zheng Chenggong to expel Netherlands invaders and reoccupy Taiwan. During the reign of Emperor Kang Xi, General Shi Lang built up the armed forces here, stormed and captured Penghu islands and and Taiwan and accomplished the great course of reunification.

Cannon reclaimed from the sea and this battle:

More information about the area from another placard:

The Silk Route of the Sea–Along the long and sinuate coasts there were three bays and twelve harbors which were the important parts of Quanzhou Harbor. Quan Zhou was considered one of China’s four important harbors since Tang Dynasty. The other three are Jia Zhou, Guang Zhou and Yang Zhou. In the era of Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, it had already become The Largest Harbor in the East. As the south harbor of Quanzhou, Anhai harbor had been prosperous for a long time from Song Dynasty to Republic of China, in which the business men were famous around the world.

Related:

• A Visit to the Jinjiang Museum in Qingyang: Part One
• A Visit to the Jinjiang Museum in Qingyang: Part Three

 

I wrote awhile back about The Highway to Hell that is the road from Anhai to Qingyang here in Fujian Province’s “Jinjiang” region, but since then, I’ve been able to check out a bit more of what nearby Qingyang has to offer–my Wife’s Younger Sister lives there, and her Young Brother works there–and I have to say that I’m impressed. Qingyang is a small city developing in a way that reflects thought, planning, foresight, and a sense of “community” on the part of those in charge. (Maybe it even has something akin to–gasp!–a ‘city planner.’) I’ve also realized that Anhai, on the other hand, is a large town that for the most part develops only “privately.” The streets and alleyways are filthy; only when you get behind the high walls of someone’s gated courtyard and into their large home, or into a restaurant or store catering to the locals, do you see much development.

I’ve begun to suspect, in fact, that although there’s lots of wealth in Anhai, it may actually be on the short list of towns vying for the “Armpit of Jinjiang” trophy.

And by the way, courtesy of MSN MapPoint, here are some maps showing you where Qingyang and other cities and towns I mention frequently are located–practically within waving distance of Taiwan:

(And for those of you trying to find small towns like Anhai and Cizao on maps, without having to be able to read Chinese, I’ve found that the old MSN Maps & Directions is better by far than similar services like Google Maps and MapQuest. Go here and select the Find a Place tab, select “World Atlas” from the Place name in list, type the Chinese city name in the box, such as Qingyang or Anhai, and then click Get Map.)

Anyway, I guess we’ll make this “Qingyang Week” here on the blog, and I’ll be writing more in the coming days for you about:

• A New Town private development community that brings thoroughly modern living to Qingyang…where my Wife’s Younger Brother is thinking of buying a place
• The new huge, sprawling SM (Super Mall? Shopping Mall?) (opened November 2005) that includes a Wal-Mart superstore and more shops and stores than I’ve ever seen in any American mall (though I’ll note that I haven’t been to the Mall of the Americas), as well as a restaurant that grinds and brews the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had in Asia (and I’m not saying that just because I haven’t had real coffee in over two months)
• The newly opened Jinjiang Museum, which centers around an excellent detailed history of the Jinjiang region, starting off with tombs dating back 5,000 years and–Ha!–finishing off with the opening of the aforementioned SM/Wal-Mart Supercenter
• The Ford auto dealership I mentioned passing on the road in The Highway to Hell post
• A health-oriented massage spa, part of a national chain based out of Henan Province
• The Konica photo development and photo gift franchise store that one of my Wife’s Cousins has opened on the Sunshine Circle intersection in Qingyang
• The Jinjiang Hospital grounds
• Maybe more, maybe not

Oh, and as a not completely related aside, I heard recently from a cab driver who admits to making one small fortune but soon parted with it through frivolous living, now trying to get started on his second by driving a cab, that the Jinjiang Region has a lot of “Foreigners” living and working here, but most of them are from India and the Middle East. Not that people from India and the Middle East aren’t full-fledged foreigners here too, just that in comparison with other parts of China, there might be less in-country representation here from places like North America and Europe.

But there’s also precedent for Middle Easterners being here. Back in Quanzhou’s heyday 400+ years ago, Arabic people were settled here in such great numbers that many became political and civic leaders–one even rose to the Number 2 position in the Fujian provincial government. But when that phase of China’s openness to the world ended, many of these people opted to stay, adopting Chinese-esque names. Round here, the surname “Ding” is actually the family line of one large group of Middle Eastern people who intermarried and decided to stay put.

Anyway, more on Qingyang in the coming days.

I recently took a ride from Xiamen to Quanzhou, a distance of maybe 100 km. I mentioned the abundance of billboards on major highways in this area in this post, but on this trip had a bit more leisure to check out the scene, which I took a few pictures of along the way. (Note: In that first photo down below, if you’d like to rent space on that billboard, that’s the cell phone number, 13805921617, of the person you can call to work out the arrangement.)

As we drove, I started writing down company URLs from the billboards, curious to go check out what kind of companies these were in more detail. Just for fun, or for your own edification or scholarship or whatever, below are the URLs from just about 1/4 of the distance between Xiamen and Quanzhou. Be forewarned, many of these sites think “Flash” productions are cool, and some include loud and annoying theme music–and for Pete’s sake, if you somehow end up making a profitable deal via something you discover through one of these links, please do the honorable thing and send me a nice “administrative fee” kickback:

• http://www.stonefair.org.cn/
• http://pengxingtile.com/
• http://www.ssfzc.com/
• http://www.alibaba.com/
• http://www.xdt-model.com/
• http://www.df-aoli.com/
• http://www.saiqi.com/
• http://www.qzhy.cn/
• http://www.topstar.com.cn/
• http://www.fffzipper.com/
• http://www.sanyuan-co.com/
• http://www.dnjx.cn/
• http://www.zhongsou.com/
• http://www.baofengshoes.com/
• http://www.anjifood.com/
• http://www.wanling-stone.com/
• http://www.baofengshoes.com/
• http://www.straitfair.org.cn/
• http://www.chinapeak.com/
• http://www.qzxxz.com/
• http://www.jinduren.com/
• http://www.shpeixin.cn/
• http://www.ap365.com/
• http://www.fuhua-food.com/
• http://www.jiujiuwang.com/