|
 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. |
