Xiangcheng District (), or Sin Kang District in

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 ...

, is a district of

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (, ) is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen. Nam ...

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.

Location

Xiangcheng is surrounded by the Chuan Chiam Boey Mountains in the south, a bay in the north, the Khor Chu Village in the east, and the Hui Chor Village in the west, where the clan village residents with the surname Qiū () are the majority. Xiangcheng was developed as a clan village with specific surnames for more than 600 years since the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

, with various small communities settled within the clan were formed. Clusters of houses with red-tiled roofs scatter among the labyrinthine alleys, and westward, in the near mid-west of the village, the main street runs from north to south. In the middle part of it stands the marketplace. Xiangcheng is the second place where dominated by (Qiū, Khoo in

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 ...

) surnames settlers, and the second is

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. The village has thirteen ancestral halls of different sizes, each representing a branch of the Qiu clan. There are two main temples in the village, namely the Cheng Soon Keong and the Hock Leng Keong. The former enshrines Ong Soon Yah and Tua Sai Yah, the patron saints of the Qiu clan, while the latter houses Poh Seh Tai Tay(), the God of Medicine.

Administrative divisions

Subdistricts: *Dongputou Subdistrict (), Xiqiao Subdistrict (), Xinqiao Subdistrict (), Xiangkou Subdistrict (), Nankeng Subdistrict (), Tongbei Subdistrict () Towns: *Punan (), Tianbao (), Zhishan (), Shiting () Other: Jinfeng Economic Development Zone ()

Landmarks

The original Cheng Soon Keong temple collapsed due to lack of maintenance during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

(1966~1976). The present building was rebuilt in 1997 with a donation of US$0.84 million from Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi,

. Situated at the downstream of Jiulong River, Xiangcheng was near the trading ports of Southern China from where people of Southern Fujian went overseas during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In 1567,

Yuegang Yuegang () was a seaport situated at the estuary of the Jiulong River in present-day Haicheng, Fujian, Haicheng town in Zhangzhou, Fujian, China. Known as a smuggling hub since the early Ming dynasty, Yuegang rose to prominence in the 16th century ...

(), a new port which was located about from Xiangjiang, replaced

as the major port in Southern Fujian. Yuegang was then superseded by

Amoy 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 ...

during the Qing dynasty.

References

Fujian
{{Authority control County-level divisions of Fujian Zhangzhou