China's Quanzhou added to Unesco World Heritage List

• The proposal, titled “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China”, is a serial property that includes 22 sites of administrative buildings and structures, religious buildings, and statues.
• The property witnessed multicultural communities, cultural memorial sites and monuments, production of ceramics and iron, and a transportation network that guided voyagers.
• It was once hailed as ""the very great and noble city"" by Marco Polo.

Quanzhou

• Quanzhou, located on the southeast coast of China, was one of the world’s largest and busiest ports during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties
• It is believed to be the starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road routes and a vital exchange hub for different civilizations and religions.
• The ancient city, also known as Zayton overseas, now is home to more than eight million inhabitants
• It has significant number of cultural relics and religious sites, such as Qingjing Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in the country, and the Twin Stone Pagodas at Kaiyuan Temple, which are the highest pair among China’s stone pagodas.
• The nominated component sites are linked to six key factors that the ICOMOS, the advisory body to the Committee, has identified as “crucial for the flourishing of Quanzhou as a successful port:

1. Institutional guarantee,
2. Multicultural communities,
3. Production sites,
4. Transportation network, as well as
5. Structure of the city and
6. Overall layout.

Institutional Guarantee

• Quanzhou has rich cultural legacies representing people’s sea god beliefs and traditions that are rooted in the Chinese myths and passed down by generations.
• The imperial official trade institutions run by the state regimes during the Song and Yuan dynasties, along with local sea-god beliefs, formed an effective institutional system, which was necessary for the port of Quanzhou to thrive as a maritime hub.

Multi-Cultural Communities

• The ancient port city was also home to multi-cultural communities and an exchange hub of diverse religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Manichaeism, which contributed to the flourishing of Quanzhou as a maritime emporium.
• Numerous cultural relics and religious sites not only provide magnificent local cultural background but show the cultural exchanges between Chinese traders and foreign merchants from the countries along the Maritime Silk Road through the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.

Production Sites

• Hundreds of production sites are situated across the Quanzhou City, where a great number of cultural relics and artefacts were unearthed
• It showcases the cities’ capacity to produce large volumes of commodities that could be sold overseas.
• The main export products included silk, cloth, porcelain, ceramics, copper, iron, silver and gold.

Transportation Network

• Bridges, pagodas and docks are some of the most significant landmarks in the city, which formed an efficient water-land transportation system.
• This served as an indispensable factor underlying Quanzhou’s success as a domestic trade center and global maritime emporium.

India and Qanzhou

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi had decided to establish “sister-state relations” between Tamil Nadu and Fujian (Province where Qanzhou is located) during the latter’s visit to Mamallapuram for the second informal summit in 2019.
• This was because of Quanzhou’s ancient links with Tamil Nadu.
• Multicultural communities including from Tamil Nadu mingled a millennia ago.