Being the land of Ou in ancient times, Wenzhou had become the capital of the Kingdom of the Eastern Ou. In 323 it was built as Yongjia Prefecture. It was also called the City of White Deer because, according to the legend, when the city was being built a white deer passed by holding a flower in its mouth, a sign of good fortune. In 675 it began to be called Wenzhou.

Historically, Wenzhou has been a city renowned for its handicrafts and also as one of the birthplaces of celadon. Its papermaking, shipbuilding, silk, embroidery, lacquerware, shoes and leather products achieved a fairly eminent position in the history of China. As early as the Southern Sony Dynasty (1127-1279), it was opened up as a foreign trade port, enjoying a reputation as a prosperous coastal city comparable to Hangzhou, which was the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). It is the hometown of Nanxi Opera (also known as the Southern Opera). The Tale of the Pipa, written by the famous Wenzhou playwright Gao Ming in the mid-fourteenth century, has been translated into a number of foreign languages and achieved worldwide renown.

Intangible cultural heritage

Wenzhou is endowed with a long history and rich culture. It boasts a long-lasting Ouyue culture, and landscape and national cultures. Based on profound culture deposits, its traditional Chinese opera art, drama, dance, crafts and arts, as well as folk literature and customs are all distinctively valuable. Abundant in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) resources, the city has established a normative, complete and hierarchical ICH protection system with 5-tier (UNESCO, national, provincial, municipal and county) ICH lists. At present, Wenzhou has 4, 35, 145 and 779 representative projects respectively inscribed on the UNESCO, national, provincial, and municipal ICH lists, with the number of the projects on the lists ranking in the forefront of Zhejiang Province; the city totally owns 37 national, 206 provincial and 930 municipal representative ICH inheriting individuals, with 14 and 20 representative ICH inheriting groups and mass organizations; it boasts 72 bases for ICH inheritance education at provincial level and research by higher education institutions as well as for its publicity and productive protection. In addition, there are 202 municipal ICH inheritance bases and 48 experience ones in the city.

Cultural relics under state protection

There are 891 cultural relics under state protection in the city. Among them, 33 are key relics under national, 111 under provincial and 747 under county (city, district)  protection.