The Forgotten Chinese Port That Once Ruled the Seas

Marco Polo said that for every shipload of pepper bound for Alexandria, a hundred came to one Chinese harbour. Its name was Zaiton. Today we call it Quanzhou (泉州).

In the Song and Yuan dynasties, this small city on the rocky coast of Fujian became the busiest port on Earth: the eastern end of a maritime Silk Road that reached Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf and East Africa. Arab, Persian, Tamil and Southeast Asian merchants settled here, and mosques, Buddhist and Hindu temples, and even a Manichaean shrine stood side by side.