Fuqing is a county-level city

County-level city

A county-level city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions....

 of Fuzhou

Fuzhou

Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....

 in Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.
It is located in the eastern part of the province, borders the East China Sea

East China Sea

The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...

, just southeast of Fuzhou and 45 kilometers from Changle International Airport

Fuzhou Changle International Airport

Fuzhou Changle International Airport is an airport in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, China. The airport was inaugurated on June 23, 1997, after being approved to start constructing in 1992. The current handling capacity is approximately 6.5 million people annually. It is one of the...

 of Fuzhou. Fuqing city has geographical advantage, for its location between Fuzhou and Xiamen, the two largest cities in Fujian Province. This city nowadays boost as industrial area, support by good infrastructure including Fuzhou–Quanzhou

Quanzhou

Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...

 Highway and port that faces Taiwan Straits. Like other Fujian cities, Fuqing famous as an ancestral homeland of overseas Chinese.

Overseas Fuqing

Fuqing, as well as much of Fujian, is known as the hometown for a large number of overseas workers ("Huaqiao"). The most common destinations are Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, while others go to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Local language

Fuqing has its own dialect which is closely related to the Fuzhou dialect

Fuzhou dialect

Fuzhou dialect , also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it ' , meaning the language spoken in...

, although the two are not completely mutually intelligible. Since it is a hilly area where mountains used to isolate each village, there are many variations in the local dialects. Most of its people can also speak Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....

, which is used in schools, businesses, and to communicate with people from different parts of the province. Fuqing people now are becoming more and more proud of their dialects. Songs sung in Fuqing dialect are available online.

Regional foods

Guangbing(光饼): Guangbing is a bread product that is baked and shaped like a sesame-seeded burger bun top. In the year of 1562, the Japanese invaded Fujian province. General Jiguang Qi was charged to drive the invaders out of Fujian. In order not to let the meal time slow down their marching speed, General Qi invented a kind of bread which was shaped into a ring at that time, so his soldiers could wear a string of those breads around their neck. After the victory, the recipe of this bread product was spread among the province and named Guangbing after General Qi. Nowadays, there is no longer a hole in the center of a Guangbing.

External links

• http://www.fuqing.gov.cn/ - Fuqing Municipal Government