Licheng (;

Min Nan Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...

Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( ; , , ; POJ), also known as Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Hokkien Southern Min, particularly Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese and Amoy dialect, Amoy Hokkien, and it is widely employed as one of the writing syst ...

: Lí-siâⁿ-khu) is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province, People's Republic of China with 428,361 inhabitants (

2020 Chinese census The Seventh National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (), also referred to as the 2020 Chinese Census, was the seventh National Population Census of the People's Republic of China, national census conducted by the National Bure ...

Geography

Licheng District consists of two parts, separated by the Jin River. On the left, northeastern side of the river, Licheng District includes several square kilometers that encompass most of Quanzhou's historical center and relics; this is surrounded on all sides (other than the river) by Fengze District. On the right or southeastern bank, Licheng District includes a much larger area, with both urban and suburban parts.

Architecture

Contrasting to many other cities in China, Licheng has much of its historic center intact. Licheng's historic center is not the typical Chinese city center, having many European-influenced buildings and churches as well. Considering that it is a coastal port city, this is unsurprising. The unique mix of medieval and religious architecture in the old city and its importance to medieval maritime trade in China, especially between

Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

and Yuan dynasties, led many sites within the district to be inscribed on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

in 2021.

Cultural Attractions

Most of historical monuments of downtown Quanzhou are within Licheng District. * Kaiyuan Temple * Qingjing Mosque *Tonghuai Temple of Guan Yu and

Yue Fei Yue Fei (; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general of the Song dynasty and is remembered as a patriotic folk hero, national hero, known for leading its forces in Jin–Song Wars, the wars ...

(通淮关岳庙) *Shrine of The Three Wang, enshrining of Wang Chao,

Wang Shenzhi Wang Shenzhi (; 862 – December 30, 925), courtesy name Xintong () or Xiangqing (), posthumous name Prince Zhongyi of Min () and also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Min (), was the founding Chinese sovereign, monarch of Min (T ...

and Wang Shengui (王审圭), founders of Min state during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era

Administration

The district comprises eight subdistricts: * Jiangnan () * Fuqiao () * Jinlong () * Changtai () * Kaiyuan () * Lizhong () * Haibin () * Linjiang () There is also one township-level ''Garden Zone'' (): *Jiangnan high-tech Zone ()

Notes and references

{{Authority control

County-level divisions of Fujian