Wudianshi Traditional Block

Wudianshi Traditional Block is located in Qingyan, the old town of Jinjiang City, covering 126 mu (8.4 hectares) and containing 106 buildings. The block is bounded by Wanda Plaza on the west and bustling Tang’an Street and Quan’an Road on the east. Qingyang is named because of its position in the south of Qingmei Mountain. During the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty, Qingyang was known as “Wudianshi”. Wudianshi Traditional Block was the birthplace of Jinjiang City.

Wudianshi Traditional Block is full of cultural relics and historical buildings, dotted with a wide variety of buildings, such as ancestral shrines, temples, private houses and stores. The well-preserved buildings from the Ming Dynasty, Qing Dyansty and the Republic of China and the contemporary age are outstanding examples of Jinjiang’s distinctive architectures. In January 2013, Wudian Architectural Complex was declared one of the eighth group of cultural heritage sites protected at the provincial level.

In September 2011, Jinjiang City established the Wudianshi Traditional Block Development and Management Leading Group, ushering in a new wave of development. Positioned as “a new icon of southern Fujian culture and the ‘living room’ of Jinjiang City”, the block is committed to maintaining its quaint traditional neighborhoods and distinctive historical buildings and preserving its intangible cultural heritage, notably Gaojia Opera, puppetry, Nanyin (southern music) and other folk customs. It has introduced modern business models and brought in businesses engaged in local snacks and specialties, folklore and intangible heritage exhibitions, health and wellness, modern fashion, cultural creativity, and film and photography to make it become a massive museum, a cultural industry clustering zone and a new tourism draw for the city integrating exhibitions of traditional culture, folklore experience, business tourism, leisure and entertainment, and food tasting. This district will become “a place that evokes a feeling of nostalgia among the old generation, a trendy place among the young generation, a homely place among overseas Chinese, a place with a strong feel of an ancestral home among Jinjiang people, and a distinctive southern Fujian place among visitors”. 

On September 15, 2015, the Fujian Provincial Rating Committee for Scenic Areas rated Wudianshi Traditional Cultural Tourism Zone as a 4A-level national scenic area. In June 2016, Wudianshi Traditional Block became one of the eighth group of Cross-Strait Exchange Bases, and in September of the same year, it was rated as a provincial-level modern service industry clustering area. In 2017, Wudianshi Traditional Block was named “a provincial-level historical and cultural block” by the provincial government. In 2018, it was designated as a national research and practical education base for primary and secondary school students. In 2019, Wudianshi received more than 6 million tourists. It has become a new tourism draw for Jinjiang City.