Quanzhou is one of the oldest cities in China. It was one of the first places in China to be opened to people from outside China. Due to its proximity to the city of Hangzhou (which was Ibn Battuta’s next stop) the city flourished with travelers. It was also a local port from which spices and silk were sent to Southern Asia and the Western world. In Quanzhou, there are sacred tombs of the companions of the Prophet Muhammed’s Uncle Abi Waqqas. They were in China trying to convert people to Islam. There is also the Great Mosque of Quanzhou that was built by a Persian man named Muhammed al-Quds in 1310. Quanzhou was one of the first places in China that was home to foreigners, and there were even foreign quarters of the city for people from other lands [1].

Finally, after years of traveling, Ibn Battuta reached China around 1343! His first stop was Zaitun and the first thing he talks about is the pottery. He says that it is the most beautiful pottery in the world, and that it is even exported to Morocco and the Maghrib (North Africa). Ibn Battuta went directly to the part of the city where the Muslims lived. He says that the inhabitants of the city were always happy when they saw a Muslim from the Arab world because they lived amongst “infidels”, and they even said “He has come from the land of Islam” [2]. Ibn Battuta then traveled to Guangzhou (Sin Kalan).

Quanzhou is one of the smaller cities in China, but it still has a prominent number of Muslims, with about one quarter of the city’s population being Muslim. These people are known as “Guo”. The Muslims are still referred to as outsiders and their tombs even have the words “foreign tombs” inscribed upon them [3].