Xiamen
Xiamen () is a coastal
sub-provincial city in southeastern
Fujian province,
People's Republic of China. It looks out to the
Taiwan Strait and borders the cities of
Quanzhou and
Zhangzhou to the north and south respectively.
Xiamen is also known as
Amoy internationally, especially in older records. In the Amoy vernacular, the city name is
'-mn̂g (using the
POJ romanization). The
toponym literally means "The Gate of the Grand Mansion". Xiamen is famous for being the ancestral home to overseas Chinese and Taiwanese as well as one of the earliest
special economic zones in China. It covers an area of 1,565 km² with a local population of 2.01 million.
The
subprovincial city of Xiamen administers 6
districts.
*
Haicang District (海沧区)
*
Huli District (湖里区)
*
Jimei District (集美区)
*
Siming District (思明区)
*
Tong'an District (同安区)
*
Xiang'an District ("安区)
The districts of Siming and Huli form the
Special Economic Zone.
In May 2003,
Gulangyu Island and
Kaiyuan District were merged into Siming District, Xinglin District (杏林区) were merged into Jimei District, and Xiang'an District was created out of a section of Tong'an District.
The place was made Tong'an District (同安縣) in
282, a sub-entity of Jin'an Prefecture (晉安郡). In
1387, the
Ming Dynasty used it as base against
pirates, and was part of
Quanzhou.
Koxinga stationed here in
1650, naming it Siming Island (思明洲), or "Remembering the
Ming", but the city was renamed by the
Manchus in
1680 to Xiamen
Subprefecture. The name "Siming" was reverted after the
1912 Xinhai Revolution and made a
county. The following it was reverted to Xiamen City. In
1949, Xiamen became a provincial city (省轄市), then upgraded to a vice-province-class city (副省級市), or a municipality. It was made a
Special Economic Zone in
1980.
Xiamen was the port of trade first used by
Europeans in
1541. It was China's main port in the
19th century for exporting
tea. As a result, the Amoy dialect had a major influence on how Chinese terminology was translated into English and other European languages. For example, the words "Amoy", "
tea" (茶; tê), "cumshaw" (感謝; kám-siā), "
ketchup" (茄汁; kiô-chiap), and "
Pekoe" (白毫; pe̍h-hô) originated from the Amoy dialect.
Xiamen was one of the five Chinese
treaty ports opened by the
Treaty of Nanjing (signed in
1842) at the end of the
First Opium War between
Britain and China.
In 2000, the largest corruption scandal in China's history was uncovered, implicating up to 200 government officials.
Since Xiamen Special Economic Zone was established, it has opened up to foreign direct investment and created many jobs, factories, export opportunities for local companies and multi-national corporations. Xiamen benefits particularly from investment capital from
Hong Kong,
Macau and
Taiwan. Xiamen's primary economic activities include fishing, shipbuilding, food processing, tanning, textiles, machine tools manufacturing, chemical industries, financial and telecommunication services.
Xiamen is one of the favourite destination for foreign investors. By the end of 2000, a total of 4,991 projects with foreign direct investment were approved in the city, with a contractual foreign investment amount of USD17.527 billion and an actual foreign investment amount of USD11.452 billion [
1]..
In 1992, Xiamen was ranked among the top 10 Chinese cities in relation to comprehensive strengths with its GDP increasing by an average of over 20% annually. In 2000, Xiamen's GDP amounted to 50.115 billion Yuan, an increase of 15.1% over the previous year, 1.1 percentage points over the expected increase target; and the per-capita GDP was about 4,650 US dollars. Further economic reforms were introduced and this brought about the total volume of imports and exports in 2000 reached USD10.049 billion, while that of exports totalled to USD5.880 billion [
2].
Financial services
By Chinese standards, Xiamen has highly developed banking services. The biggest bank is the state-owned commercial bank, Sino-foreign joint venture "Xiamen International Bank", and solely foreign-funded "Xiamen City Commercial Bank".
Foreign banks that have established representative offices in Xiamen includes
Hong Kong*Jiyou Bank,
*East Asia Bank
*Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.
*Hang Seng Bank
Singapore*United Overseas Bank
*Overseas Chinese Bank
US Banks*Bank of Orient
*Citibank
*Hartford Financial Services
European Banks*Standard Chartered Bank
*Credit Lyonnais Bank
Filipino Banks *Commercial Bank
*Allied Bank
Thai Banks*Bangkok Bank
Japanese Banks* Daiichi Kangyo bank Ltd.
There are more than 600 financial institutions in operation in Xiamen. Retail and corporte customers in Xiamen have access to a wide variety of financial services and various financial services firm.
Geography
Xiamen comprises
Xiamen Island (situated longitude 118° 04'04"E, by latitude 24° 26'46" N.),
Gulangyu Island, and a larger region along the mouth of
Jiulong River on the continent. Huli District and most of Siming District (except Gulangyu) are on Xiamen Island, while the other four districts lie on the mainland. The Gaoji (Gaoqi-Jimei) Causeway buuilt in 1955 has transformed Xiamen Island into a peninsula by linking it with the mainland.
Xiamen Island is located very close to the island of
Quemoy (Kinmen), which is governed by the
Republic of China (based on
Taiwan).
Climate
Xiamen has a subtropical monsoon climate, mild and rainy, neither sweltering in summer nor snowing in winter with an annual average temperature of 21 degrees Celsius with the max highest temperature of 38.4 degrees Celsius and the lowest of 2 degrees Celsius , an average rainfall of 1,100 mm, and strong northeastern winds prevailing. The average temperature during summer is 26 degrees Celsius.
The local
vernacular is Amoy, a dialect of
Southern Min, also called
Hokkien. Amoy is widely used and understood in the southern region of Fujian province. The official language of the
People's Republic of China is
Mandarin (putonghua), is also used in the media, business, communications, education and the arts.
*Xiamen is served by the
Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, the base of
Xiamen Airlines. Currently, there are seven Asian cities that have direct flights to Xiamen. They are Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and Bangkok. Cities outside China's mainland that have direct flights to Xiamen are
Hong Kong and
Macau which are situated on
Guangdong province's southern border.
*You can take taxi from the airport to the city. The taxi fee is around 30-40RMB.
*A
ferry service links
Xiamen Island and
Gulangyu Island.
*There are two major bridges linking Xiamen Island to
Mainland China.
Xiamen Port
Xiamen Port is one of the top ten ports in China. It is a huge, deepwater, ice-free port that never silts up. Xiamen port is located on Xiamen Island which is at the mouth of the Jiulong River. It has an excellent natural harbour and is well connected to the mainland. The natural coastline in the port area is 64.5 km while the water is over 12 m indepth. There are 81 berths of big, medium or small tonnage, including 16 deep-water berths, of which 6 operate containers of over 10,000 tonnages. 100,000t ships can berth straight at the inner port, while 50,000t ships can pull in for loading and unloading. Currently, Xiamen port has navigation routes to
Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Kaohsiung and Singapore. But Xiamen has recently opened ocean routes to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe and America. In 2000, the cargo throughput at the port was 19.65 million tons, an increase of 10.82% over the previous year; the container throughput reached 108.46 million TEUs, up by 27.83% from the previous year.
Xiamen was recently voted China's cleanest city, and has many attractions for the tourist. Xiamen and its surrounding countryside provides spectacular scenery and pleasant tree-lined beaches. Gulangyu, also known as Piano Island, is a popular, peaceful weekend getaway with amazing views of the city. Xiamen's Botanical Garden is a nature lover's paradise. And the Buddhist Nanputao Temple, dating back to the Tang Dynasty, is a national treasure.
Xiamen has a wide variety of department stores. There are also supermarkets run by Metro and Wal-Mart and the SM Shopping Mall, where you can buy almost everything you need at reasonable prices. There are also supermarkets on university campuses and they have delivery service for many goods to save your time and trip. In the university campus, there are many bookstores where you can either read or pick up the recently published bestsellers or textbooks you need in your studies. Both the supermarkets and bookstores open seven days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. In Xiamen, night markets are really vibrant. The city's booming economy provide excellent opportunities for overseas students to improve their oral Chinese, have internship and even work as casuals.
National
*
Xiamen University (founded 1921)
*
Xiamen University of TechnologyPublic
*
Lujiang University (厦门理工学院/鹭江职业大学)
*
Jimei University (集美大学)
*
Xiamen Oceanography Vocational College (厦门海洋职业技术学院)
Private
*
Xiamen Nanyang College (厦门南洋学院)
*
Xiamen Performing Arts College (厦门"艺职业学院)
*
Cardiff,
United Kingdom (since 1983)
*
Sasebo,
Japan (since 1983)
*
Cebu,
Philippines (since 1984)
*
Baltimore, Maryland,
United States (since 1985)
*
Wellington,
New Zealand (since 1987)
*
Penang,
Malaysia (since 1991)
*
Government website of Xiamen (available in English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese)
*
Expatriates Guide to Xiamen and Fujian Province*
City guide to Xiamen, updated frequently
