Xiamen

I really want to get back to Shanghai but it hasnt happened...so I'm also going to Xiamen...when i was in Taiwan they told me Xiamen was a fake city, and that Taiwanese generals move to Xiamen...here is some info..thanks Wiki...


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 Dynasty 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 (省辖市), then upgraded to a vice-province-class city (副省级市), 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 nineteenth 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; tê), "cumshaw" (感謝; kám-siā), "ketchup" (茄汁; kiô-chiap), and "Pekoe" (白毫; pe̍h-hô), kowtow, gung-ho, and possibly Japan (jit-pun) 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. In 2000, the largest corruption scandal in China's history was uncovered, implicating up to 200 government officials.

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 multi-national 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 tools manufacturing, chemical industries, financial and telecommunication services. Xiamen is one of the favourite destination for foreign investors. By the end of 2000, a total of 4,991 projects with foreign direct investment were approved in the city, with a contractual foreign investment amount of USD17.527 billion and an actual foreign investment amount of USD11.452 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 2000, Xiamen's GDP amounted to 50.115 billion Yuan, an increase of 15.1% over the previous year, 1.1 percentage points over the expected increase target; and the per-capita GDP was about 4,650 US dollars. Further economic reforms were introduced and this brought about the total volume of imports and exports in 2000 reached USD10.049 billion, while that of exports totalled to USD5.880 billion.

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".
Foreign banks that have established representative offices in Xiamen include

Xiamen Port
Xiamen Port is one of the top ten ports in China. It is a huge, deepwater, ice-free port that never silts up. Xiamen port is located on Xiamen Island which is at the mouth of the Jiulong River. It has an excellent natural harbour and is well connected to the mainland. The natural coastline in the port area is 64.5 km while the water is over 12 m indepth. There are 81 berths of big, medium or small tonnage, including 16 deep-water berths, of which 6 operate containers of over 10,000 tonnages. 100,000t ships can berth straight at the inner port, while 50,000t ships can pull in for loading and unloading. Currently, Xiamen port has navigation routes to Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Kaohsiung and Singapore. Xiamen has recently opened ocean routes to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe and America. In 2000, the cargo throughput at the port was 19.65 million tons, an increase of 10.82% over the previous year; the container throughput reached 108.46 million TEUs, up by 27.83% from the previous year.
[edit]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. Xiamen's Botanical Garden is a nature lover's paradise. The Buddhist Nanputuo Temple, dating back to the Tang Dynasty, is a national treasure.

Shopping
Xiamen has a wide variety of department stores. There are also supermarkets run by Metro and Wal-Mart and the SM Shopping Mall, where you can buy almost everything you need at reasonable prices. There are also supermarkets on university campuses and they have delivery service for many goods to save your time and trip. In the university campus, there are many bookstores where you can either read or pick up the recently published bestsellers or textbooks you need in your studies. Both the supermarkets and bookstores open seven days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. In Xiamen, night markets are really vibrant. The city’s booming economy provide excellent opportunities for overseas students to improve their oral Chinese, have internship and even work as casuals.

Zhongshan Road
This is the main commercial street in Xiamen. It includes traditional shophouses with the latest fashion, shoes and wide variety of products.

Xiahe Road
This is a newly established busy commercial precinct in Xiamen. Shopping centres located here include: Railway Station World Trading Mall, Chengda Mall, Holiday World for Women and Children, Eupa. Bailuzhou Shopping and Recreational Centre. It is situated in the upper Hubinzhong Road and has a large assortment of shops and eateries.