Do you know where the name “Fuzhou” comes from?

In 725 AD (13th year of Kaiyuan, Tang Dynasty), the imperial court changed “Minzhou” to “Fuzhou.” Just one character. But from that moment on, the Min River was no longer just a local waterway — it became the spine of a hub city.

When I first came across this date in the Fuzhou Transportation Records, I looked up what was happening in the rest of the world that year. Europe was still in the early Middle Ages. Fuzhou was already building roads.

One River, Three Cities

The people of Fuzhou have always been good at building routes. Water and land both.

In 908 AD (2nd year of Kaiping, Later Liang), King Wang Shenzhi did something bold: he dug a canal between Mount Wu and Mount Yu, linking the inland water system to the main channel of the Min River. A thousand years later, we’d call it Fuzhou’s first “ring road.”

In 974 AD (7th year of Kaibao, Northern Song), the Qian family of Wuyue expanded the city walls in a big way. In 1371 AD (4th year of Hongwu, Ming), military transport lines were built around the outer perimeter.

Three cities, layer by layer. Each expansion followed a new route.

From Mount Wu to the Min River, from the old city to Mawei — Fuzhou grew by breaking down the barriers between mountains and sea.

18 Kilometers, Over 10 Meters Deep

Why did Mawei Port matter so much?

From Luoxing Pagoda to Langqi Island, the main channel of the Min River runs about 18 kilometers with an average depth of over 10 meters. In the age of wooden sailing ships, this was world-class harbor territory.

The Fuzhou Basin has over 100 tributaries, forming a capillary network across the plain. The Min River flows about 31 kilometers through the urban area. Goods could travel from the river mouth directly into every alley of the old city.

In 1866, the Mawei Shipyard was founded. China’s first modern steamships were launched here. That’s no coincidence — a port’s potential is measured by its channel depth. 18 kilometers, 10 meters deep. That was Fuzhou’s ticket into early globalization.

81.5 Million Pounds of Tea

1842. The Treaty of Nanjing was signed. Fuzhou became a treaty port.

July 1861. The Min Customs office opened in Cangshan. From that point, trade volume at Fuzhou Port exploded.

How much?

Around 1880, Fuzhou exported 81.5 million pounds of tea annually — nearly half of China’s total tea exports.

These numbers from the Fuzhou Customs Records aren’t dry statistics to me. 81.5 million pounds of tea leaving Fuzhou, exchanged for silver, technology, and a complete industrial chain — from the tea mountains to the docks, from the shipyard to the shipping lanes.

In 783 AD (4th year of Jianzhong, Tang), Yongquan Temple was completed on Mount Gu. It sat exactly at the intersection of the Min River shipping channel and Fuzhou’s eastern trunk road. Ships would pray before departure, and pray again on return. In the Mawei area alone, 48 temples related to maritime faith still stand today.

Faith and commerce coexisted at the same transit nodes for over a thousand years.

From Zheng He to Huang Naishang

In 1405, Zheng He set sail from Changle’s Taiping Port.

In 1901, Huang Naishang led the first group of Fuzhou migrants by ship from Mawei to Sarawak.

Nearly five centuries apart. But the logic was the same — Fuzhounese used waterways to tie their fate to the world.

In 1948, despite severe economic turmoil, remittances from Southeast Asia flowing through Fuzhou’s transportation network still reached approximately $1.2 million USD. Those funds flowed to Minhou, Changle, and Pingtan, turning into schools and roads.

Verbs in the Local Dialect

In the Fuzhou dialect, going upstream is called “Aoj-juǐ.” A skilled sailor is “Lǎo-juǐ-nèng.”

The Qi Lin Ba Yin, a rhyme book from the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty, recorded many of these terms. A 1982 linguistic survey found that older workers at Taijiang wharves and Mawei Shipyard still used over 200 unique transportation-related verbs.

The 8 tones of the Fuzhou dialect carried better than Mandarin in the noisy chaos of the docks. One shout of “Aoj-juǐ” and everyone on the pier knew what to do.

This isn’t linguistics. It’s a way of thinking shaped by a life on the water.

4,000 Coordinates

Today, the city of Fuzhou has used GIS to precisely map over 4,000 immovable cultural relics related to transit and commerce.

1986: Fuzhou was designated a National Historical and Cultural City. 2021: the 44th World Heritage Committee session was held here — not because Fuzhou is old, but because it knows how to make old things visible to the world.

Reading the Fuzhou Transportation Records, the thing that struck me most is this: Fuzhou was never a passive “port city.” It never hesitated when it came to building roads, digging canals, or constructing ships.

Named in 725. Expanded in 974. Shipyard in 1866. Every move was deliberate.

Next time you’re walking through the streets of Fuzhou, notice the ground beneath your feet.

Wang Shenzhi’s canal might still be running under there.