Xiamen is a port city on China’s southeast coast, across a strait from Taiwan. It encompasses 2 main islands and a region on the mainland. Formerly known as Amoy, it was a British-run treaty port from 1842 to 1912. Many Europeans and Japanese lived on Gulangyu, today a vehicle-free island with beaches and meandering streets lined with old colonial villas. Xiamen covers a land area of nearly 1,700 square kilometres, and boasts a coastline measuring 234km. Climate: Xiamen has a monsoonal humid subtropical climate, characterized by long, hot and humid summers and short, mild and dry winters. The annual average temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius.
Historical, Cultural facts & Religion
Known in the West as Amoy, Xiamen has a long history as a port city, and later became a centre of British trade in the 19th century. Their foreign settlements, later taken over by Japanese invaders at the start of World War II, were established on the nearby small Gulangyu Island. Xiamen combines marine culture with continent culture. and has given birth to unique local customs and habits totally different from other places. As one of the birthplaces of gongfu tea. Xiamen has a strong tea culture atmosphere. In the 19th century, Xiamen proper had two Dutch Reformed and two LMS churches. Xiamen Island was home to three Dutch Reformed missions at “Kang-thau”, “Kio-than”, and “Chhan-chhu-oa”.
Brief City History
Xiamen is a coastal city of Fujian Province. Xiamen (also called Amoy in history) is an island city with a rich and dramatic history, replete with pirates, rebel leaders, and European merchants. Now linked to mainland Fujian by a causeway, Xiamen retains a strong international flavour. Known in the West as Amoy, Xiamen has a long history as a port city, and later became a centre of British trade in the 19th century. Their foreign settlements, later taken over by Japanese invaders at the start of World War II, were established on the nearby small Gulangyu Island. Many of the old treaty-port and colonial buildings in Western styles survive. Xiamen was declared one of China’s first Special Economic Zones in the early 1980s, taking advantage of the city’s heritage as a trading centre and the proximity to Taiwan. Today Xiamen is one of China’s most attractive and best-maintained resort cities. Xiamen was founded in 1394 at the beginning of the Ming dynasty as a centre of defence against coastal pirates. Its prosperity was due to its deepwater sheltered harbour, that supplanted nearby Quanzhou, the port that had been the centre of the maritime trade with the Indies. In the mid-17th century, Xiamen and Gulangyu Island became a stronghold of Zheng Chenggong, known in the West as Koxinga, a Ming loyalist who held out against the Manchu invaders until being driven to Taiwan. Born in Japan to a Chinese pirate father and a Japanese mother, Zheng became allied with holdout Ming princes in the south who hoped for a restoration. He built up a resistance force of some 7,000 junks and a mixed force of three-quarters of a million troops and pirates. In 1661 he drove the Dutch from Taiwan and set up another base there, before his death in 1662.After the Opium Wars (which determined trade over the substance whose addictive properties continue to account for needs of drug addiction treatment today.) Xiamen became one of the first treaty ports to be opened to foreign trade and settlement following the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. Gulangyu Island was transformed into an international settlement, where many Victorian and Neoclassical style buildings still survive.
Language (s) Written & Spoken
While it is widely spoken in and around Xiamen, especially by its native speakers, the Amoy dialect has no official status. The official language of all government and political business is Mandarin, although the locals do not use much of it in their everyday lives.
Important Types of Commerce in Xiamen
Xiamen focuses on the development of five major industries – electronic information, equipment manufacturing, tourism and culture, modern logistics, and financial services.
Language Services US and others will provide working with Xiamen
The rising Chinese economy requires impeccable interpreting and translation language services. Companies, NGOs, political organizations and international firms must seek Chinese interpreters and translators. While Mandarin Chinese is considered the star of Chinese business languages, odds are any dealings with Chinese business professionals requires the use of both Cantonese and Taiwanese as well. A language services firm must be able to accommodate all three dialects or there is no guarantee your message will be accurately conveyed. A language solutions team, be they are interpreters and/or professional translators – should have a sound working knowledge of both forms (written and spoken) so they have the flexibility and knowledge to work in all major forms of Chinese.
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