Shuitou () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

township-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since 1412, due to mainland China's large population and geographical area. In the People's Republic of China, the constitution provides for three levels of government. Ho ...

) of

Nan'an City Nan'an () is a county-level city of southern Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Quanzhou City and as of 2023, had a total population of 1,663,542. More than 4,000,000 overseas Chinese trace their ancest ...

, in southern

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,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Shuitou is located on the western side of the

Shijing River The Shijing River () is a small river in the Fujian Province of China. The tidal estuary it forms when entering the Weitou Bay of the Taiwan Strait is known as the Anhai Bay (). Most of the Shijing River's basin is within the prefecture-level cit ...

and its estuary, the Anhai Bay (). It is connected to its eastern neighbor, the town of

Anhai Anhai is a town in southern Fujian province or Minnan, People's Republic of China. It is located in the far southern suburbs of the Quanzhou metropolitan area and is separated by Weitou Bay () from Kinmen, which is controlled by the Republic ...

, by the famous ancient five-'' li''-long

Anping Bridge Anping Bridge () is a Song dynasty stone beam bridge in Fujian province. It is long. Fu et al (2002), p. 185 Mao (1978), p. 6 The bridge is also known as the Wuli Bridge (, literally ''Five Li Bridge'') because its length is about 5 '' li'', wh ...

, built from large (some almost 10 meters long) slabs of stone. There is also a modern road to Anhai (and on to Jinjiang City and Quanzhou), which has a much shorter bridge over the Shijing, as the estuary has largely silted up over a thousand of years since the old bridge was built.

Economy

Shuitou - old pedestrian street - DSCF8927

Shuitou, similarly to its southern neighbor,

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 ...

, has a significant stone-working industry. There is a fair amount of new economic development in town, some of it connected to the trade with

Taiwan 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 ...

Aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

is practiced on the Anhai Bay (the estuary of the

). As of ca. 2001, 138.5

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s of the bay's mudflats and water surface were used for aquaculture; this included 37.5 ha used for raising the

blood cockle ''Tegillarca granosa'' (also known as ''Anadara granosa'') is a species of ark clam known as the blood cockle or blood clam due to the red haemoglobin liquid inside the soft tissues. It is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the eastern ...

s (''

Tegillarca granosa ''Tegillarca granosa'' (also known as ''Anadara granosa'') is a species of ark clam known as the blood cockle or blood clam due to the red haemoglobin liquid inside the soft tissues. It is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the easter ...

'', 泥蚶), 58.3 ha used for the

Chinese razor clam ''Sinonovacula constricta'', the constricted tagelus, Chinese razor clam or Agemaki clam, is a commercially important species of bivalve native to the estuaries and mudflats of China and Japan. It is extensively aquafarmed in China and other cou ...

(''

Sinonovacula constricta ''Sinonovacula constricta'', the constricted tagelus, Chinese razor clam or Agemaki clam, is a commercially important species of bivalve native to the estuaries and mudflats of China and Japan. It is extensively aquafarmed in China and other cou ...

'', 缢蛏), 16.2 ha used for

oyster farming Oyster farming is an aquaculture (or mariculture) practice in which oysters are bred and raised mainly for their pearls, shells and inner organ tissue, which is eaten. Oyster farming was practiced by the ancient Rome, ancient Romans as early as the ...

, and 26.5 ha used for

shrimp farming Shrimp farming is a form of aquaculture that takes place in marine or freshwater environments, producing shrimp or prawns (crustaceans of the groups Caridea or Dendrobranchiata) for human consumption. However, the industry has raised concerns abou ...

. Over 1400 people from Shuitou's Gangnei Village () were employed in aquaculture and fishing. Ruǎn Jīnshān; Li Xiùzhū; Lín Kèbīng; Luō Dōnglián; Zhōu Chén; Cài Qīnghǎi (阮金山;李秀珠;林克冰;罗冬莲;周宸;蔡清海),
安海湾南岸滩涂养殖贝类死亡原因调查分析
(Analysis of the causes of death of farmed shellfish on the mudflats in the southern part of Anhai Bay), 《福建水产》 (''Fujian Aquaculture''), 2005-04

References

Township-level divisions of Fujian {{Fujian-geo-stub

Economy

See also

References