Anhai 安海镇 | |
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 Surviving White Pagoda (center) of ShuixinChan Temple (right), with the adjacent old residential neighborhood (left) demolished, to make way for new development (such as seen in the background) | |
  Anhai Location in Fujian | |
| Coordinates (Anhai town government):24°43′00″N118°28′34″E / 24.7166°N 118.4761°E /24.7166; 118.4761 | |
| Country | People's Republic of China |
| Province | Fujian |
| Prefecture-level city | Quanzhou |
| County-level city | Jinjiang |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
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| Chinese | 安海 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Anhai[a] is atown in southernFujian province orMinnan, People's Republic of China. It is located in the far southern suburbs of theQuanzhou metropolitan area and is separated byWeitou Bay (simplified Chinese:围头湾;traditional Chinese:圍頭灣;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Ûi-thâu-oân) fromKinmen, which is controlled by theRepublic of China on Taiwan. Administratively, Anhai is part ofJinjiang County-level City, which in its turn is subordinated toQuanzhou.
The highest point in the town's administrative area is Mount Língyuán (simplified Chinese:灵源山;traditional Chinese:靈源山;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Lêng-goân-soaⁿ) at 305 metres (1,001 ft).
Anhai was known as Anping (Chinese:安平;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:An-pêng) during theSong dynasty. The famous Song-eraAnping Bridge crosses a tidal estuary to the west of town, connecting Anhai with its western neighbor, the town ofShuitou, which administratively belongs inNan'an. ShuixinChan Temple is located by the eastern end of the bridge.
Anhai was an important port during theMing and earlyQing periods. The 19th-century researchers writing for theHakluyt Society thought Anhai was the port of "Tansuso" visited byMartín de Rada, but later research identified Tansuso as Zhongzuosuo (Chinese:中左所;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Tiong-chó-só͘), which is in modernXiamen, some 40 km (25 mi) to the west.[3] Anhai regained importance in the later 19th century whensand bars created by theJin andLuorivers blocked the principal harbor forQuanzhou; the city retained its size and importance to local trade but maritime commerce was redirected to Anhai.[2]
