Anhai

Anhai 安海镇
Town
Surviving White Pagoda (center) of Shuixin Chan 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: 24°42′44″N 118°27′38″E / 24.71222°N 118.46056°ECoordinates: 24°42′44″N 118°27′38″E / 24.71222°N 118.46056°E
Country	China
Province	Fujian
Prefecture-level city	Quanzhou
County-level city	Jinjiang
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)

Anhai
Simplified Chinese	安海镇
Traditional Chinese	安海鎮
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Ānhǎi zhèn Southern Min Hokkien POJ An-hái tìn

Anhai (Chinese: 安海镇) is a town in southern Fujian, China. It is located in the far southern suburbs of the Quanzhou metropolitan area. and is separated by Weitou Bay (Chinese: 围头湾) from Kinmen, which is controlled by Taiwan. Administratively, Anhai is part of Jinjiang County-level City, which in its turn is subordinated to Quanzhou.

The highest point in the town's administrative area is Mount Língyuán (Chinese: 灵源山) at 305 metres (1,001 ft).

History

The White Pagoda

Anhai was known as Anping (traditional Chinese: 安平) during the Song dynasty. The famous Song-era Anping Bridge 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 periods; its name was often transcribed by Europeans as Gan-hai. The 19th-century researchers writing for the Hakluyt Society thought Anhai (Gan-hai) was the port of "Tansuso" visited by Martín de Rada, but later research identified Tansuso as Zhongzuosuo (Chinese: 中左所), which is in modern Xiamen, some 40 km (25 mi) to the west.^[1]

References

1. Chen, Boyi (陳博翼) (December 2009), "「Aytiur」(Aytim)地名釋證：附論早期海澄的對菲貿易 (Identifying the place named "Aytiur" (Aytim), with a note on the early trade between Haicheng and Philippines)" (PDF), 明代研究 (Ming Studies) (13): 81–108