蟳埔村

Set along the eastern edge of Quanzhou's urban coast, Xunpu Village has become one of the most distinctive cultural destinations in southern Fujian. Traditionally a fishing community, the village is home to the Xunpu people, who are popularly held to descend from Arab and Persian merchants who settled in the Quanzhou region during the Song and Yuan dynasties. While centuries of intermarriage have long blended these lineages into the broader Minnan population, distinctive traditions persist in the village's architecture, dress, and ritual life.

The most striking visual signature of Xunpu is the floral headdress worn by local women, known as zanhua or flower circlet. These elaborate arrangements, woven from fresh seasonal flowers arranged in rings around a coiled bun, transform everyday wear into a mobile garden of jasmine, magnolia, and chrysanthemum. Older women often wear the headdress as a matter of routine, while younger residents and visiting travelers don it for festivals, weddings, and special events. Around 2023 and 2024, the zanhua tradition went viral globally through social media, drawing new waves of visitors curious to experience and photograph the practice.

A second signature feature of the village is the oyster-shell house, known locally as haaoke cuo. In these dwellings, the lower walls are clad in oyster shells packed together with mud and lime, producing a textured surface that is both practical and visually arresting. The shells were traditionally ballast unloaded from ships returning from voyages across the South China Sea, a quiet material link to the maritime trade that defined medieval Quanzhou. Many of these houses survive in Xunpu's older lanes, where small museums, craft workshops, and family shrines share space with the daily rhythms of contemporary village life.

For foreign travelers, Xunpu is one of the most rewarding half-day trips from downtown Quanzhou. The village can be explored on foot along its narrow lanes, with stops to admire the oyster houses, watch women preparing flower circlets, and sample local seafood snacks. Zanhua studios throughout the village offer visitors the chance to have their hair styled in the traditional manner and to choose a complete outfit for photographs. Combined with the Maritime Museum and the UNESCO historic core, Xunpu completes a layered portrait of Quanzhou as a place where medieval cosmopolitanism continues to find new, surprising forms of expression.