Xiamen travel guide — Xiamen tourism and travel information

Xiamen travel guide

about Xiamen

Xiamen (Simplified: 厦门, Traditional: 廈門, Wade Giles: Hsiamen) is a coastal sub-provincial city in Fujian Province, southern China.

Xiamen is also known as Amoy internationally, which is how "Xiamen" is spoken in Northern Min, the vernacular of the provincial capital Fuzhou. In the vernacular of Xiamen, known as Southern Min, it is pronounced E-mng. The placename means "The Gate of the Grand Mansion".

Xiamen geography

Xiamen Municipality comprises of Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, and a larger region along the mouth of Jiulong River on the mainland. Huli District and most of Siming District (except Gulangyu) are on Xiamen Island. The other four districts are on mainland.

Xiamen Island is geographically very close to the island of Quemoy, which is governed by the Republic of China (based on Taiwan).

Xiamen history

The place was made Tong'an District (同安縣) in 282, a sub-entity of Jin'an Prefecture (晉安郡). In 1387, the Ming Empire used it as base against pirates, and was part of Quanzhou. Koxinga stationed here in 1650, naming it Siming Island (思明洲), or "Remembering the Ming", but the city was renamed by the Manchus in 1680 to Xiamen Subprefecture. The name "Siming" was reverted after the 1912 Xinhai Revolution and made a county. The following it was reverted to Xiamen City. In 1949, Xiamen became a provincial city (省轄市), then upgraded to a vice-province-class city (副省級市), or a municipality. It was made a Special Economic Zone in 1980.

Xiamen was the port of trade first used by Europeans in 1541. It was China's main port in the 19th century for exporting tea. As a result, the Amoy dialect had a major influence on how Chinese terminology was translated into English and other European languages. For example, the words "Amoy", "tea" (茶), "cumshaw" (感謝), "ketchup", "satay" originated from the Amoy dialect.

Xiamen was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing (signed in 1842) at the end of the First Opium War between Britain and China.

Near cities to Xiamen

• Nanjing travel guide 76 km
• Taoyuan travel guide 160 km
• Makung travel guide 180 km
• Changsha travel guide 200 km
• Fuzhou travel guide 220 km
• Changhua travel guide 250 km
• Hsinchu travel guide 290 km
• Kaohsiung travel guide 300 km
• Hualien City travel guide 360 km
• Chilung travel guide 370 km

Near webcams to Xiamen

• Hongkong webcam 470 km
• Hongkong webcam 470 km
• Hongkong webcam 470 km
• Hongkong webcam 470 km
• Hongkong - Victoria park webcam 470 km
• Victoria Harbour webcam 470 km
• Hong Kong webcam 470 km
• Hong Kong - Victoria Harbour webcam 470 km
• Macao - Largo do Senado webcam 770 km
• Shanghai - Deutsche Schule webcam 800 km

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Xiamen travel services

cheap flights to Xiamen

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Xiamen travel insurance

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Xiamen real estate

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Xiamen travel books

Xiamen travel guide books

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Xiamen maps and atlases

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