Visit Quanzhou Tianhou Palace, built in 1196 during the Southern Song Dynasty. As the oldest, largest, and most prestigious Mazu temple worldwide, it’s a global center for Mazu belief, witnessing Quanzhou’s maritime trade prosperity and cultural diversity as the “First Port of the East.”
Explore the complex, which preserves Song Dynasty structures and Ming-Qing Minnan architectural styles, with intact halls and rare relics like Yuan Dynasty Hindu stone pillars.
Next, head to the Site of Deji Gate, the southern gate ruin of Quanzhou in the Song-Yuan Dynasties. Built in 1230 and used for over 700 years, it’s the only scientifically excavated city gate site in ancient Quanzhou.
Discover the ruins, which reveal layered remains of walls, moats, barbicans, and bridges from the Southern Song to Qing Dynasties, with unearthed Hindu, Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist stone carvings and Ming-Qing cannons, proving Quanzhou’s maritime trade prosperity and multicultural integration in the Song-Yuan Dynasties.