Anhai 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 ...

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 or Minnan, People's Republic of China. It is located in the far southern suburbs of the

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

metropolitan area and is separated by Weitou Bay () from

Kinmen Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), only east from the city of Xiamen in Fujian, located at the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, from wh ...

, which is controlled by the Republic of China on Taiwan. Administratively, Anhai is part of Jinjiang County-level City, which in its turn is subordinated to

. The highest point in the town's administrative area is Mount Língyuán () at .

History

Anhai was known as Anping () during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. The famous Song-era

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 ...

crosses a tidal estuary to the west of town, connecting Anhai with its western neighbor, the town of Shuitou, which administratively belongs in Nan'an. Shuixin Chan Temple is located by the eastern end of the bridge. Anhai was an important port during the Ming and early

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

periods. The 19th-century researchers writing for the

Hakluyt Society The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, England, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. In addition to its publishin ...

thought Anhai was the port of "Tansuso" visited by Martín de Rada, but later research identified Tansuso as Zhongzuosuo (), which is in modern

Xiamen 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 ...

, some to the west. Anhai regained importance in the later 19th century when sand bars created by the Jin and Luo

rivers A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

blocked the principal harbor for

; the city retained its size and importance to local trade but maritime commerce was redirected to Anhai.

Notes

References

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