Mawei Shipyard

Do you know where China’s first steam-powered warship was built? Not Shanghai. Not Tianjin. It was Mawei, Fuzhou — a tiny, unremarkable town in the 1860s. In 1869, a warship called Wannian Qing was launched here. Displacement: 1,370 tons. When the news reached Beijing, it shook the imperial court. Because before that day, every warship China owned had been bought from foreigners. I’m Chuke. Today I want to flip through some yellowed Fuzhou gazetteers and tell you the story of a small town that built 34 warships in 34 years. ...

In 1866, Zuo Zongtang did something massive in Mawei, Fuzhou. At the confluence of the Min and Wulong Rivers, he built China’s first machine shipyard. Not just China’s first—it was the largest industrial base in the Far East at the time. But what fascinates me about this story isn’t the warships or the ironclads. It’s the numbers. 39 core historical sources. 1.5 million square meters of protected heritage. 582,000 tons of annual shipping. 48 temples. 80 overseas students. 152,000 overseas Chinese. 300 industrial vocabulary words. 18 3D-modeled buildings. ...