Xiamen, which is actually
an island linked to the mainland by a long
causeway of road and railway, is, like Shenzhen,
a Special Economic Zone. Xiamen is flush
with Taiwanese investment. The local dialect,
known as minnanyu, is nearly identical to
the dialect spoken in Taiwan, and the nearest
Taiwanese-controlled islands - Matsu and
Quemoy (Kinmen) - are just a couple of kilometers
(a mile, or so) off shore from Xiamen.
Historically, Xiamen was
established as a major seaport in the Ming
Dynasty, in the seventeenth century to stem
the southward influence of the Manchu Qing
dynasty and restore the Ming rule. Xiamen
was also an unofficial trading depot, doing
a thriving under-the-counter business in
silks with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch,
until a British naval force stormed ashore
after their victory in the first Opium War
in 1841 and opened it up as a full Treaty
Port. There is evidence today of its role
as an international settlement in the surviving
colonial architecture of parts of its skyline.
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