Quanzhou: Half City of Fireworks, Half City of Immortals

The aroma of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) mingles with the sizzling heat of ginger duck on West Street, while the morning bells of Kaiyuan Temple echo in the Minnan dialect beneath the arcades. The Pan Pool of the Confucian Temple reflects a thousand years of Confucian tradition, and the Laozi Rock on Qingyuan Mountain smiles at the vicissitudes of human life. Not far away, the incense of Guanyue Temple and the stone pillars of Qingjing Mosque stand side by side, one swirling with smoke, the other solemn. Quanzhou, the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, with its magical blend of "half city of fireworks, half city of immortals," fuses the mundane, the divine, and exotic civilizations into a unique earthly paradise.