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.
