Southern Coast (Fujian)

• , between Quanzhou and Fuzhou
• was historically the great port of the region. The prefecture includes other towns:

• , home of a famous tea
• , an industrial suburb
• , a walled town with beaches
• , source of "blanc de chine" pottery
• , right across the river from Quanzhou
• , near Xiamen, many clothing factories

, booming Special Economic Zone, with its suburbs:

• , a scenic island near downtown

, inland from Xiamen

• , a windswept peninsula with beaches and interesting stone formations

• , an island in Xiamen that had the consulates and merchants' homes in the era of tea clippers, and is now a major tourist area.

This region has always been outward-looking. It has been doing foreign trade since the days of the Maritime Silk Road, when Quanzhou was one of China's most important ports. In the era of tea clippers, two of China's five treaty ports, Xiamen and Fuzhou, were in Fujian Province and Fuzhou shipped more tea than any other city. Today all those cities are prosperous and still much involved in international trade; Xiamen is a special economic zone with particularly fast development.
The region has also been a major source of immigrants — any Chinatown on Earth will have some people who trace their ancestry to this area. In particular, many overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and Taiwan are descended from people from this region.

The stone craft

The coastal counties of southern Fujian have long been known for extensive skilled use of local stone (granite) in construction. It typically comes cut into long narrow blocks, and is used to build not only houses and bridges, but all kind of auxiliary structures, including fences.

• Houses. In the northern part of the region, a traditional stone building would have a flat roof build of the same stone blocks as the walls. One can see still see many such buildings in, for example, Hui'an County, especially within the walled city of Chongwu. In the southern part of the region (e.g. Zhangpu County), a traditional house is more likely to have an ornate gabled roof covered with tiles; the walls may be completely built of stone, or have the lower part build of stone combined with adobe above a certain point.
• Bridges. An ancient trade route run all along Fujian's coast; as early as during the Song Dynasty, a number of magnificent bridges have been built at the points where the road crosses river's estuary, using supersized stone blocks for the bridge surface. The two well restored bridges worth seeing are the Luoyang Bridge (on the far east side of Quanzhou), and the Anping Bridge (about half-way between Quanzhou and Xiamen). The Shunji Bridge (near downtown Quanzhou), unfortunately, has been severely altered during the ROC era, and fallen apart since; some of its pillars still can be seen standing.
• Walled cities. The city walls of the region's major cities, such as Quanzhou, have been demolished in the 20th century, with only a few isolated gate towers have been preserved (or rebuilt) as historic monuments. However, several small isolated wall towns have been preserved and restored. This includes the seaside Chongwu (one of the forts originally built to defend the coast from pirates in the late 14th century) and the two fortified villages (Zhaojiabao and Yi'ancheng) in the inland Huxi She Township (Zhangpu County, south of Zhangzhou)
• Tulou. Unlike the more typical Fujian tulou found in the province's inland counties, a few tulous of the coastal Zhangpu County combine the use of rectangular granite stone blocks with adobe, to an interesting overall visual effect.
• Statues. In some parts of the region (Hui'an County in particular), producing stone statues of all kinds for the national market has become an important industry, and roadsides have become sculptors' showrooms.

As in most areas of China, Mandarin is very widely spoken and English is not.
Most of the area has Minnan Hua (South Fujian speech) as the local language, but the region around Putian has its own Puxian dialect. In some areas Hakka is also spoken.

Xiamen has the main airport of the region with connections to all major Chinese cities, quite a few elsewhere in Asia, and even flights to Amsterdam. See Xiamen#By_plane for discussion.
Jinjiang (just across a river from Quanzhou) also has an airport with a number of domestic flights plus some to Hong Kong and Manila.
There is a high-speed rail line running North-South near the coast with stops in the main cities of this area — Putian, Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou. It connects north to Fuzhou and on toward Shanghai. Going south, it goes along the coast to Shantou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province.
An additional high-speed goes inland from Zhangzhou to Longyan. Since 2019, some high-speed trains go on a "Fujian loop" route, from Fuzhou along the coast to Xiamen and Zhangzhou, then inland to Longyan, and then returning to Fuzhou along the inland route, via Sanming and Nanping.
A fair number of conventional overnight trains run from Xiamen via Zhangzhou, Longyan, and Nanchang (Jiangxi Province) to various destinations throughout the country.

The high-speed rail line (see above) is now the most convenient way of getting between the major cities. There are also good highways, and busses that go more-or-less everywhere.

Itineraries

• One possible route in the Ho Chi Minh City to Shanghai overland itinerary goes through this area.

This is a coastal area, both fishing and fish farming are important industries, and local cuisine emphasizes seafood. Specialties include abalone and eels, both of which are exported to Japan and to other areas of China in large quantities.
The larger cities, especially Xiamen, also have a range of restaurants serving various sorts of international cuisine.

The area produces a number of teas. Probably the best-known is an Oolong tea called tie guan yin from Anxi. This has been exported for centuries; it was the tea pitched overboard at the Boston Tea Party.

The general advice at China#Stay_safe applies here.
The Taiwan-controlled island of Kinmen is near Xiamen; both governments consider the area sensitive and keep substantial military forces there, and travellers should not stray into military areas or do anything that might be taken as provocative. This is not nearly as big a deal as it once was — there has not been artillery fire across that strait since the 1970s and China-Taiwan relations are now excellent — but it is still worth considering.
In this area, typhoons are possible at any time May to November, with the highest risk in July and August.

Adjacent areas of Fujian are (with main tourist attractions shown in brackets):

• Northern Coast (Fujian) (Fuzhou, provincial capital and historic city)
• Inland Fujian (Mount Wuyi and Hakka Tulou, both on the UNESCO World Heritage List)
• Kinmen (by ferry from Xiamen), then fly to Taiwan (short inexpensive flight)

It is also easy to head south into Guangdong province; Chaozhou and Shantou are nearby cities. The high-speed train is the fastest and most convenient way to go, but there is also good bus service.