Nan'an () is a

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

of southern

Fujian Province Fujian is a province in 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 prefecture city by population is Qua ...

, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of

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 ...

City and as of 2023, had a total population of 1,663,542. More than 4,000,000

overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...

trace their ancestry to Nan'an.

History

Inhabited since the

Neolithic Era The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, the first incarnation of Nan'an was established as a

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

in the early 500s by the division of Jin'an County under

Emperor Wu of Liang Emperor Wu of Liang () (464 – 12 June 549), personal name Xiao Yan (蕭衍), courtesy name Shuda (叔達), childhood name Lian'er (練兒), was the founding Emperor of China, emperor of the Chinese Liang dynasty, during the Northern and Souther ...

. It was under the jurisdiction of the Qingyuan Circuit during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was incorporated into Quanzhou Prefecture (泉州府) during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, when it was considered one of the Three Wu Kingdoms alongside Jinjiang and Hui'an. Following the establishment of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, Nan'an was a part of Jinjiang Prefecture until its incorporation into Quanzhou City in 1986; it was the site of military engagements during the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...

. Nan'an was established as a

in its own right in 1993.

Geography and climate

Nan'an experiences subtropical monsoonal humid climate. It has an average temperature of . The city covers an area of . Nan'an is situated below

Anxi County () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China with 1,003,599 inhabitants ( 2020 census). It lies adjacent to and directly north of Xiamen city. Anxi is well known for a number ...

, adjacent to Jinjiang City to the east and

Tong'an District Tong'an District () is a northern mainland district of Xiamen which faces Quemoy County, Republic of China. To the north is Anxi and Nan'an, and to the south is Jimei. Tong'an is also east of Lianxiang and Changqin to the West. It covers

Xiamen Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

to the West. Nan'an is from Xiamen. It is from downtown of Quanzhou and from the provincial capital, Fuzhou. Islands and islets in Nan'an include: * Kui Yu () * Dabai Yu ( or ,

traditional characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the ''Standard Form of ...

: ) * Xiaobai Yu ( or )

Administrative divisions

The city is divided into 3 subdistricts, 21 towns, and 2 townships. The city also contains an economic development zone.

Subdistricts

*, , and .

Towns

* Guanqiao (), Shengxin (), Luncang (), Dongtian (), Yingdu (), Xiangyun, Jintao (), Shishan (), Penghua (), Matou (), Jiudu (), Lefeng (), Luodong (), Meishan (), Honglai (), Hongmei (), Kangmei (), Fengzhou (), Xiamei (), Shuitou, and

Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

Townships

* and Xiangyang Township.

Economy

Nan'an is fast developing into an economic and industrial hub for Quanzhou prefecture. Its close proximity to regional economic centres such as Xiamen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen makes it an important investment location for foreign investments and Taiwan businessmen. Nan'an has very strong rail infrastructure and road links making it a gateway for tourism as well as commerce.

Culture

Nan'an is closely connected to the history of overseas Chinese, having been a hub of the

Maritime Silk Road The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern Africa, and Europe. It began by the 2nd century BCE ...

and a longtime economic and cultural centre for the Minnan people, with over 4 million overseas Chinese tracing their ancestry to the area

Nanguan music Nanguan (; also ''nanyin'', ''nanyue'', ''xianguan'', or ''nanqu'') is a style of Chinese classical music, Chinese chamber music from the southern Chinese province of Fujian. Nanguan was first brought to Taiwan during the Ming dynasty by the Han ...

has its origins in the area in and surrounding Nan'an. It is known as the location of Anping Bridge, a stone beam bridge dating back to the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

, as well as the burial place of Ming general Zheng Chenggong (better known internationally as

Koxinga Zheng Chenggong (; 27 August 1624 – 23 June 1662), born Zheng Sen () and better known internationally by his honorific title Koxinga (, from Taiwanese: ''kok sèⁿ iâ''), was a Southern Ming general who resisted the Qing conquest of Chin ...

.) The local language of Nan'an is a variety of

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

, part of the

family of Hokkien dialects. The surname Hong (洪; ''Ang'' in Hokkien and Teochew romanizations) has one of its origins in Nan'an.

Education

The Shishan campus of Quanzhou Normal University is located in Nan'an. Schools located in Nan'an include Nan'an Experimental Middle School.

Notable people

Native to Nan'an

* Hong Chengchou, Ming and

official *

Huang Dongping Huang Dongping (; born 30 April 1995) is a Chinese badminton player. She is the mixed doubles Olympic Champion at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and was three-time mixed doubles Asian Champion, winning in 2018, 2019 and 2024. Huang was ranked first ...

, professional badminton player and Olympic gold medalist * Guang Ze Zun Wang, deity in

Chinese folk religion Chinese folk religion comprises a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. This includes the veneration of ''Shen (Chinese folk religion), shen'' ('spirits') and Chinese ancestor worship, ances ...

Lee Kong Chian Tan Sri Dato' Lee Kong Chian (; 18 October 1893 – 2 June 1967), also known by his alias Lee Geok Kun (), was a prominent Chinese Singaporean businessman and philanthropist based in Malaya and Singapore between the 1930s and the 1960s. He ...

, Singaporean politician and businessman * Li Fabin, three-time weightlifting World Champion and Olympic gold medalist * Lim Bo Seng, resistance fighter and national hero of Singapore * Zheng Chenggong,

Southern Ming The Southern Ming (), also known in historiography as the Later Ming (), officially the Great Ming (), was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and a series of rump states of the Ming dynasty that came into existence following the ...

general and resistance leader * Zheng Zhilong, political and military leader in the late Ming dynasty

Ancestral home

* Huang Ru, Chinese engineer and academic * Ong Beng Seng, Malaysian billionaire * Wang Wenjiao, Indonesian-born badminton player known as the "Godfather of Chinese Badminton" * Ye Fei, Philippine-born

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

general and politician

References

External links

Nan'an Official Government Website
{{Authority control Cities in Fujian County-level divisions of Fujian Quanzhou