Fujian 福建

Fujian is mountains-and-sea: the mountains are Hakka tulou and Wuyi tea; the sea is Mazu and the diaspora. Its dialects are China's most fragmented — Minnan, Fuzhounese and Hakka are mutually unintelligible, but the sea-going instinct of “aim to win” (aih piah ciah eh kia) is universal.

Quanzhou is world history rediscovered: Zayton to Marco Polo, among the world's largest ports in Song–Yuan times. Today one street holds Buddhist Kaiyuan, the Islamic Qingjing mosque, a Guandi temple and a Catholic church — a density of coexistence rare on earth, and the core of its World Heritage listing.

Tea is Fujian's operating system: gongfu tea with Mengcheng pots and Ruochen cups greets every guest; Wuyi rock tea prizes “rock bone, floral fragrance”; the mother Dahongpaos yield under a kilo a year. In Fujian, “come have tea” opens every door.

Local know-how

• Folk worship is alive in Quanzhou — follow local flow, don't point or heckle
• Tulou are family homes: ask before entering occupied floors; paid entry to private halls is custom
• Queue for Xunpu flower-crown shoots; the village is a living community, not a studio
• Modest dress at Meizhou's Mazu temple