Urban Planning

A few days ago I was digging through the Fujian Provincial Annals, reading up on Fuzhou’s urban history, and I got pulled in. You’ve gotta hand it to Fuzhou—it’s a pretty special place. Over 2,200 years of history, squeezed into a valley surrounded by three hills. Wushan, Yushan, Pingshan, all crammed together in the city proper. Two ancient pagodas—the White Pagoda and the Black Pagoda—stand there like they’ve been keeping watch for centuries. When you walk through the old quarters, you look up and there’s the mountain, and on the mountain, there’s the pagoda. You don’t see that in many Chinese cities. ...

Geographic Connection Specific locations mentioned in the text: Fuzhou (Ye City), Xiamen (Amoy), Quanzhou (Zaiton), Zhangzhou, Nanping (Yanping), Sanming, Longyan, Putian, Yong’an, Shaowu, Wuyishan (Chong’an), Jian’ou (Jian’an), Gutian. Introduction: 2,000 Years of Urban Lifelines Between Mountains and Sea Fujian, a land known as the ‘Southeastern Mountain Kingdom’, has an urban construction history dating back to 202 BC. According to the Gazetteer of Fujian Province: Urban and Rural Construction, the construction of ‘Ye City’ in northern Fuzhou marked the beginning of Fujian’s urban history, initiating a legacy of city-building wisdom that has lasted two millennia. ...