Most of the city is on Xiamen island. The smaller island Gulangyu and the mainland areas Jimei and Haicang, just across bridges, are administratively parts of the same city, but geographically distinct.
Until 1840, Western "barbarians" were allowed to trade only in Guangzhou (which they called Canton), and only under strict controls. After China lost the First Opium War, Britain took Hong Kong and China was forced to open five Treaty Ports: Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai.
In Xiamen, the island Gulangyu became a foreign enclave with consulates and luxurious homes. Today it is a quiet area (no cars or motorcycles) and five minutes by ferry from downtown, and still quite scenic.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Fujian was a focus of missionary activity. There are still many historic churches in the region.
In the 1970s, Xiamen was made a Special Economic Zone to encourage development and since it has flourished. Technically, only Xiamen island and Gulyang Yu are in the SEZ, but the whole region is flourishing. Xiamen has more Taiwan investment than any other mainland city, partly because Taiwanese is a dialect of Minnan (Southern Min) a family of Chinese languages which are spoken in southern Fujian. There is also a major influx of other foreign investment; among the foreign companies with large factories in Xiamen are Lifetime Products, Dell and Kodak.
It is not Shanghai or Hong Kong, but compared to many other cities in China, Xiamen is definitely a very vibrant, affluent and modern place. It got an international award in a contest for most livable cities in 2002, neighboring Quanzhou won the following year.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Xiamen
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Xiamen - updated May 2024
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Xiamen Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
