Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China, lying between the Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Mindong linguistic and cultural region.
Fuzhou's population was 8,291,268 as of the 2020 Chinese census. Like other prefecture-level cities in China, its administrative area contains both urban and rural areas: in 2020, 72.49% of inhabitants (6,010,242) were urban, while 27.51% (2,281,026) were rural. As of 31 December 2018, the total population was estimated at 7,740,000 whom 4,665,000 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of five urban districts plus Minhou County.
In 2015, Fuzhou was ranked as the 10th fastest growing metropolitan area in the world by Brookings Institution. Fuzhou is listed as No. 20 in the China Integrated City Index 2016's total ranking, a study conducted by the National Development and Reform Commission.
Fuzhou is also a major city for scientific research, appearing in the global top 50 cities as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is home to several major universities, notably Fuzhou University, one of China's key universities and other public universities, including Fujian Normal University and Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.
The Yuanhe Maps and Records of Prefectures and Counties, a Chinese geographical treatise published in the 9th century, says that Fuzhou's name came from Mount Futo a mountain northwest of the city. The mountain's name was then combined with -zhou, meaning "settlement" or "prefecture", in a manner similar to many other Chinese cities. During the Warring States period, the area of Fuzhou was sometimes referred to as Ye (Chinese: 冶), and Fuzhou was incorporated into China proper during Qin dynasty. The city's name was changed numerous times between the 3rd and 9th centuries before finally settling on Fuzhou in 948. In Chinese, the city is sometimes referred to by the poetic nickname Rongcheng (Chinese: 榕城; Foochow Romanized: Ṳ̀ng-siàng), lit. 'The Banyan City'.
In older English publications, the name is variously romanized as Foochow, Foo-Chow, Fuchow, Fūtsu, Fuh-Chow, Hock Chew, and Hokchew.
Bone analysis has found genetic connections between the ancient inhabitants of Xiying (7300–6500 BC) and Austronesian peoples. The Keqiutou site (6500–5000 BC) appears to have been a planned settlement and is the oldest known site of rice cultivation in Fujian. Artifacts from these sites appear connected to the Dapenkeng culture (6000–4500 BC) on Taiwan.
The Fuzhou area was also the site of the Huqiutou (虎丘頭文化; c. 5000 BC) and Tanshishan (曇石山文化; c. 3000 BC) neolithic cultures.
During the Warring States period (5th–3rd centuries BC), the Chinese began referring to the present area of Fujian as Minyue, reckoning their people among the Baiyue who once inhabited most of southeastern China. In 306 BC, the state of Yue originally centered on the Shaoxing area of Zhejiang Province fell to Chu. The Han-era historian Sima Qian wrote that the surviving members of the Yue royal family fled south to what is now Fujian, where they settled alongside its own Yue people to create Minyue.
The First Emperor of the Qin unified ancient China in 221 BC and desired to bring the southern and southeast regions under Chinese rule. The Qin organized its territory into commanderies roughly equivalent to modern prefectures, with Minzhong Commandery (閩中郡) overseeing Qin territory in Fujian. The area seems to have continued mostly independent of Chinese control for the next century, however.
The Han dynasty that followed Qin initially ruled much of eastern China through vassal kingdoms, with both Minyue and Nanyue largely autonomous. In 202 BC, Emperor Gaozu enfeoffed a leader named Wuzhu (無諸, Old Chinese Matya) as king of Minyue. King Wuzhu established a walled city called Ye (冶, Old Chinese Lya, "Beautiful") the same year, a date now taken as the establishment of Fuzhou. In 110 BC, the armies of the Wu Emperor defeated Minyue during the Han–Minyue War, annexing its territory and people into China. Many Minyue citizens were forcibly relocated into the Jianghuai area, and the Yue ethnic group was mostly assimilated into the Han Chinese, causing a sharp decline in Ye's inhabitants. The area was reorganized as a county in 85 BC.
Three Kingdoms to the Tang dynasty
During the Three Kingdoms period, southeast China was nominally under the control of Eastern Wu, and the Fuzhou area had a shipyard for the coastal and Yangtze River fleets. In 282, during the Jin dynasty, two artificial lakes known simply as the East Lake and West Lake were constructed in Ye, as well as a canal system. The core of modern Fuzhou grew around these three water systems, though the East and West Lakes no longer exist. In 308, during the War of the Eight Princes at the end of the Jin dynasty, the first large-scale migration of Chinese immigrants moved to the south and southeast of China began, followed by subsequent waves during later periods of warfare or natural disaster in the Chinese heartland. The administrative and economic center of the Fujian area was still the Ye area during the Sui dynasty (581–618).
Fuzhou prospered during the Tang dynasty. Buddhism was quickly adopted by citizens who quickly built many Buddhist temples in the area. In 725, the city was formally renamed Fuzhou. Throughout the mid-Tang dynasty, Fuzhou's economic and cultural institutions grew and developed. The later years of the Tang saw a number of political upheavals in the Chinese heartland such as the An Lushan Rebellion and Huang Chao Rebellion, prompting another wave of northerners to immigrate to the modern-day Northern Min and Eastern Min areas. In 879, a large part of the city was captured by the army of Huang Chao during their rebellion against the Tang government.
In 893, the warlord brothers Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi captured Fuzhou in a rebellion against the Tang dynasty, successfully gaining control of the entire Fujian Province and eventually proclaiming their founding of an independent kingdom they called the Min Kingdom in 909. The Wang realm had its main capital at Changle (長樂, "Lasting Joy"), sometimes conflated with Fuzhou and now one of its districts. The Wang brothers enticed more immigrants from the north but the realm splintered after Wang Chao's death. The northeastern commanderies became the separate Yin Kingdom, which eventually absorbed Min while taking its name. In 978, Fuzhou was incorporated into the newly founded Song dynasty, though their control of the mountainous regions was tenuous.
Fuzhou underwent a major dramatic surge in its refined culture and educational institutions throughout the Song dynasty as Fuzhou produced 10 Fuzhounese zhuangyuan scholars (scholar who is ranked the top first place in the imperial examinations), a large number for a city in the country during that dynasty.
The "Hualin" Temple (華林寺, not to be confused with the temple of the same name in Guangzhou), founded in 964, is one of the oldest and surviving wooden structures in China. New city walls were built in 282, 901, 905, and 974, so the city had many layers of walls – more so than the Chinese capital. Emperor Taizong of the Song dynasty ordered the destruction of all the walls in Fuzhou in 978 but new walls were rebuilt later. The latest was built in 1371. During the Southern Song dynasty, Fuzhou became more prosperous; many scholars came to live and work. Among them were Zhu Xi, the most celebrated Chinese philosopher after Confucius, and Xin Qiji, the greatest composer of the ci form of poetry.
In the accounts of his supposed travels during the Yuan dynasty, Marco Polo mentioned the city as Fugiu. This would have represented not the local Min pronunciation but that of the mandarin administrative class. According to Odoric of Pordenone, another traveler of the era, Fuzhou had the biggest chickens in the world.