For the past 3 months I've been living in the city of Xiamen 厦门 (teaching at a university in nearby Jimei 集美, but I'll be more specific about that in a future post). As China goes, Xiamen is one of the nicest cities to live in since its right on the coast and much less polluted than most of China's major cities. Its also a very conveniently located city, not too far from Hong Kong 香港 and Shenzhen 深圳 to the south or Hangzhou 杭州 and Shanghai 上海 to the north.
Xiamen, formerly known as Amoy, is located in Fujian province on the southeast coast of China. One thing Xiamen is noted for is being the closest PRC neighbor of Taiwan, which Chinese people adamantly insist is a province of China (although Taiwanese people tend to adamently disagree). Fortunately, relations between Taiwan and mainland China have been pretty good in recent years and Xiamen has certainly benefited from Taiwanese business and trade while Taiwan has benefited from a nearby entry point to the lucrative mainland market.
Xiamen has an interesting history, much of which relates to China's contact with the outside (barbarian) world. As a coastal city, Xiamen has long been a trade center and was made one of the five treaty ports after the first Opium War in 1842. While forced to open to foreign trade in the mid 19th century, Xiamen was voluntarily designated as one of the first Special Economic Zones in the 1980s and again opened to foreign investment and trade. Since then, Xiamen has grown dramatically, but has managed to maintain a relatively clean environment and not to become too overpopulated (at least compared to other Chinese cities). I'll post more about Xiamen in the future as I live here a bit longer and learn more about my new Chinese home.
A view of the Xiamen skyline shot from a ferry to nearby Gulangyu Island
Xiamen, formerly known as Amoy, is located in Fujian province on the southeast coast of China. One thing Xiamen is noted for is being the closest PRC neighbor of Taiwan, which Chinese people adamantly insist is a province of China (although Taiwanese people tend to adamently disagree). Fortunately, relations between Taiwan and mainland China have been pretty good in recent years and Xiamen has certainly benefited from Taiwanese business and trade while Taiwan has benefited from a nearby entry point to the lucrative mainland market.
I've circled Xiamen in red on the map
Xiamen has an interesting history, much of which relates to China's contact with the outside (barbarian) world. As a coastal city, Xiamen has long been a trade center and was made one of the five treaty ports after the first Opium War in 1842. While forced to open to foreign trade in the mid 19th century, Xiamen was voluntarily designated as one of the first Special Economic Zones in the 1980s and again opened to foreign investment and trade. Since then, Xiamen has grown dramatically, but has managed to maintain a relatively clean environment and not to become too overpopulated (at least compared to other Chinese cities). I'll post more about Xiamen in the future as I live here a bit longer and learn more about my new Chinese home.
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On your map, Chinese Taipei!? That is surely a PRC map if there ever was one. Also is the Philipines really that close!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway I hope you're good!
David
Just noticed this comment. Yes, clearly a PRC map! As all mainland Chinese know, Taiwan is a province of China. The Philippines is pretty close - about 2 hours to Manila by plane from Hong Kong (or 3 hours from Xiamen).
ReplyDeleteLooking forward! Arriving in 2 weeks to teach at XMUT
ReplyDelete