Xiamen

Xiamen, also known as Amoy, is a coastal city in southeastern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It looks out to the Taiwan Strait and borders Quanzhou to the north and Zhangzhou to the south.Xiamen and the surrounding countryside are famous for being an ancestral home to overseas Chinese and one of China's earliest Special Economic Zones in the 1980s. It was recently named China's 2nd 'most suitable city for living.

Quick facts

• One of China's original four special economic zones.
• Since 1981 Xiamen port ranks 8th among the top ports in China and 30th among the world's top 100 ports.
• Xiamen is the world's largest supply base for raw tungsten materials. 
• Xiamen is the world's largest sunglasses manufacturing base, exporting 120 million each year. 
• Xiamen is an important base in Fujian province for making medium and large-sized modern container vessels and yachts.

Economy

Since Xiamen Special Economic Zone was established, it has opened up to foreign direct investment and created many jobs, factories, export opportunities for local companies and multinational corporations. Xiamen benefits particularly from investment capital from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Xiamen's primary economic activities include fishing, shipbuilding, food processing, tanning, textiles, machine tool manufacturing, chemical industries, telecommunications, and financial services.

Xiamen is a favourite destination for foreign investors. In 2008, a total of 356 projects with foreign direct investment had been approved in the city, with a contractual foreign investment amount of US$1.896 billion and an actual foreign investment amount of US$2.042 billion.

In 1992, Xiamen was ranked among the top 10 Chinese cities in relation to comprehensive strengths with its GDP increasing by an average of over 20% annually. In 2008, Xiamen's GDP amounted to 156 billion Yuan, an increase of 11.1% over the previous year; and the per-capita GDP was 62,651 yuan (US$9,017). Further economic reforms were introduced, and this brought the total volume of imports and exports in 2008 to US$45.4 billion, while that of exports totalled US$29.4 billion.

Xiamen is also the host of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade held annually in early September to attract foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland.

Financial services

By Chinese standards, Xiamen has highly developed banking services. The biggest bank is the state-owned commercial bank, Sino-foreign joint venture Xiamen International Bank, and solely foreign-funded Xiamen City Commercial Bank.

Geography

Xiamen comprises Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, and larger region on the mainland stretching from the left bank of the Jiulong River in the west to the islands of Xiang'an in the north east. This region accounts for four of the municipality's six district governments; Huli District and Siming District (except Gulangyu) are on Xiamen Island.

The Gaoji Causeway built in 1955--57 transformed Xiamen Island into a peninsula, and so it was termed in the heady propaganda of the time.

Just west of Xiamen Island are the islands of Quemoy (Kinmen, or Jinmen) and Little Quemoy (Xiao Jinmen), which are governed by the Republic of China based in T'aipei. Note that the T'aipei government too considers these islands to be a part of Fujian Province.

Climate

Xiamen has a monsoonal humid subtropical climate. Summers are hot and humid with 32°C average highs in July and August. Winters are humid and chilly with 10°C average lows in January and February. The average number of Typhoon(Hurricane) influence is 4 to 5 during May to November. The maximum summer high is 39°C and the winter low is 2°C. The annual rainfall averages 1100mm, and strong north-eastern winds prevail.

Tourism

Xiamen was recently voted China's cleanest city, and has many attractions for the tourist. Xiamen and its surrounding countryside provides spectacular scenery and pleasant tree-lined beaches. Gulangyu, also known as Piano Island, is a popular, peaceful weekend getaway with amazing views of the city and features many Victorian-era style European edifices. Xiamen's Botanical Garden is a nature lover's paradise. The Buddhist Nanputuo Temple, dating back to the Tang Dynasty, is a national treasure. Xiamen is also famous for its history as a frontline during the war with Kinmen (also known as Jinmen or Quemoy) 50 years ago. One attraction for tourists is to view Kinmen island, a few kilometres away and under Taiwanese control, from Xiamen island.