Pútián

Pútián spreads across the Xīnghuà plain, where the Mùlán Stream runs east into Xīnghuà Bay, the meeting point of northern and southern Fújiàn. The Yuán made it Xīnghuà Route and the Míng Xīnghuà Prefecture, paired with Xiānyóu, and the district was known for its examination graduates: a school stood on Southern Mountain as early as about 558, and Tang-era Pútián boasted the Lín family of nine prefects.

Three kilometers offshore lies Méizhōu Island, where villagers honored a local woman as Māzǔ, protector of seafarers, and where her ancestral temple stands. In late 1562 Japanese pirates took the prefectural city; in 1563 Qī Jìguāng and Yú Dàyóu destroyed their last base at Pínghǎi Garrison and recovered it. The hard biscuit carried by Qī's soldiers, the Jìguāng biscuit, became a local food. The Qīng coastal evacuation of the 1660s struck the shore, and after Taiwan fell to the Qīng the court honored Māzǔ as Empress of Heaven.