Talk:Quanzhou

Photos

I think the photos on this page need help, but I'm not about to do the work; I have neither the time nor the skills. This is a request for help.

For one thing, the current layout seems moderately awful. Some pictures are large and there are quite a few, so some get pushed away from the text they go with. I wonder if we need two photos of plaque-carrying turtles.

What is missing? Is any of it on Commons? We have two museum photos, one of a museum not mentioned in the text as far as I can see, but none of other museums that are mentioned. Is Walmart really the best image we can find for Quanzhou shopping? I somewhat vaguely recall various beautiful things around the city — some parks with lakes, for example — that do not curently appear.

Anyone care to help? Does anyone have good photos to add? Pashley (talk) 02:58, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

I got rid of Walmart & added some, but it still needs work. The only image I am entirely certain must stay is the 'old saint', Lao Tze. Pashley (talk) 15:53, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Guide? OtBP?

I just promoted this from Outline to Usable. To me, it looks to be at or very near Guide, but that needs other opinions.

Once it is at Guide status, it seems to me an obvious nomination for OtBP, a very interesting place that is not well-known. On the other hand, with a population over six million and oodles of historical sites, perhaps Dotm? Other opinions on that too, please. Pashley (talk) 16:33, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

At first glance, highly useful article, nice work. We're sometimes tempted to nitpick here at WV, but the truth is that we have quite a few "usable" guides that are perhaps the best available English language travel guides for the destination. I don't know, but this might well be one of them. That said, it could use some more info on getting around. Are (a couple of) temples in one area, would that be navigable on foot? (There's no map so people will not be able to tell). And what about buses? Which of the bus stations mentioned in Get In would you try for city buses? Any remarks on internet and postal services would also be useful, I think, in the connect section. And of course, someone should find a nice shiny banner for this article, but that's probably the easiest thing to fix. JuliasTravels (talk) 17:56, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Quite likely the best guide is Bill Brown's [1]; his Xiamen guide is excellent. I did not much like the edition of the Quanzhou book I had, but this new edition may be better. Pashley (talk) 18:12, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Aside from Julia's points above, this article still needs a map and climate information. I think that making a city of 6 million "Off the Beaten Path" would be pretty crazy and highly ethnocentric, because what we'd be saying is that such a big city is not on the beaten path because it's in China and not some other country. I'd strongly argue for a DotM nom, but not until the article is ready. Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:40, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

I have tried to bring up the 'What is DotM/OtBP' point before in regards to ethnocentrism with no success. Many people say that 'If someone on the other side of the planet is likely to have heard of it then it's DotM' and everything else is OtBP. To me, there are many flaws to that way of thinking, because the 'other side of the world' seems to mean 'Do Europeans/Americans/Australians know it?' Naturally, Americans and Europeans are more familiar with their own geography than the rest of the world, so that would mean more features from those places and would also put into question places like Xian in spite of its seemingly obvious DotMness, because I doubt the average American/European actually knows it. Certainly if this is the basis of judgement, then indeed Quanzhou would be OtBP because Europeans and Americans definitely don't know it.

I tried to make the argument that I much prefer a guideline of something to the effect of, "Would travelers with an interest in the area/region where this location is located be likely to visit or be familiar with it?" That discussion was centered around Africa, but I think it is more reasonable and supports diversity for us to think about what's DotM in slightly smaller regions than the global level (ex: West Africa, Middle East, etc.) or even country level (top sites of Mongolia, Botswana, etc for DotM) particularly for parts of the world where our own ethnocentrism tends to make itself visible (like Africa). If this is used as the basis of judgement, then we should ask ourselves if those who travel to and have interest in China would know it or be likely to visit?

The general response to ethnocentrism concerns (albeit only a few people were involved in the discussion) as I remember it was that the accusation iself is unfounded because placing a destination as DotM does not imply that it is 'better' than OtBP. I still disagree that it is unimportant to allow diversity in DotMs, but anyway, that's where that discussion went last I remember. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 05:32, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

I think your formulation — "Would travelers with an interest in the area/region where this location is located be likely to visit or be familiar with it?" — is a good one. It looks to me like the previous discussion you're referring to is Wikivoyage talk:Destination of the month candidates#Is Africa of the beaten path?, but I don't think anything that's there is quite as clear as this. I think we should start a new discussion at Wikivoyage talk:Destination of the month candidates that proposes this new standard. Your post above could be a good place to start the discussion, if you'd like to repost it there. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:17, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes, the proposal came at the end when most people lost interest in the discussion or ignored it. I've done as you suggested and posted the above on the DotM talk page. Hopefully it will be more fruitful this time around. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 13:42, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

Time to raise this question again? It still looks close to guide to me, but there are weaknesses. There are some dead links & it looks to me like not much has changed in several years since I last seriously edited it. Quite likely it needs a general review & update.

Drink & Sleep are rather sparse & could use more entries. Eat has enough entries, but no co-ordinates or budget/mid-range/splurge classification. Pashley (talk) 00:10, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Tattoos?

Marco Polo: Many come hither from Upper India to have their bodies painted with the needle in the way we have elsewhere described, there being many adepts at this craft in the city. Did the tradition of tattoos among sailors originate on the Maritime Silk Road, perhaps in Quanzhou? Is it alive today? Pashley (talk) 18:03, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

@Pashley No, there's no such custom in Quanzhou now:) HiemstraTIME (talk) 06:19, 20 August 2016 (UTC)