Editing Xiamen (section)

==History==
The area of Xiamen was largely bypassed by the [[Qin Empire|Qin]] and [[Han Empire|Han]] conquests and colonization of [[Guangdong]], which passed west of Fujian down the [[Lingqu Canal]] between the [[Xiang River|Xiang]] and [[Li River (Guangxi)|Li]] [[rivers of China|rivers]]. It was first organized as [[Tong'an County]] in AD{{nbsp}}282 under the [[Jin Dynasty (265-420)|Jin]], but it lost this status soon afterwards. Tong'an County was again established in 933 under the [[Later Tang dynasty|Later Tang]].

The settlement on the southeastern shore of Xiamen Island{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} (now part of [[Siming District]]) developed as a seaport under the [[Song dynasty|Song]], although legal foreign trade was restricted to nearby [[Quanzhou]], which administered the area. In 1387, attacks by the [[Wokou|"Japanese" or "dwarf" pirates]]—many of them actually disaffected Chinese—prompted the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] to protect the harbor with the fortress that gave Xiamen its name. The [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] first reached Xiamen in 1541. After the [[fall of the Ming]] to the [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] in 1644, [[Southern Ming]] loyalists including [[Koxinga]] used Xiamen as a base from which to launch attacks against the invading Qing-aligned Han [[Eight Banners|Bannermen]] from 1650 to 1660.<ref>{{citation |first=Lynn A. |last=Struve |title=The Southern Ming 1644–1662 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1984 |page=181 }}.</ref> In 1661, Koxinga drove the [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] from [[Dutch Formosa|Taiwan]] and [[Kingdom of Tungning|moved his operations there]]. His base on Xiamen fell to a combined Qing and Dutch invasion in 1663.<ref name=ohwell>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 31]}}.</ref> The [[East India Company]] traded extensively with the port, constructing a [[trading factory|factory]] there in 1678.<ref name=ohwell/>{{efn|The factory represented an investment of [[Spanish dollar|$]]30,000 in [[bullion]] and $20,000 in goods.<ref name=ohwell/>}} It was raised to the status of a [[subprefecture]] in 1680,{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} but the taxes and other restrictions placed on traders compelled the British to relocate to Canton and [[Fuzhou]] the next year.<ref name=ohwell/> Trade resumed in 1685<ref name=backagain>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 32]}}.</ref> and continued until the imposition of the [[Canton System]]. However, despite the Canton system which restricted Western trade to the port of Guangzhou, the [[Spanish Filipino|Spanish]] were still allowed to trade in Xiamen. However, the [[Spanish Filipino|Spanish]] rarely used this privilege as Chinese traders would ship their goods from Xiamen to [[Manila]] and vice versa, which was more profitable for both sides.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Greenberg |first1=Michael |title=British Trade and the Opening of China 1800–1842 |date=1969 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=47}}</ref>

By the 19th century, the [[Chinese city walls|city walls]] had a circumference of around {{convert|9|mi|sp=us|0}}, with an inner and outer city divided by an inner wall and a ridge of hills surmounted by a well-built fort.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} The inner harbor on Yundang Bay was also well fortified{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} and these defenses were further strengthened upon the outbreak of the [[First Opium War]].<ref name=backagain/> Nonetheless, Xiamen [[Battle of Amoy|was captured]] in 1841 between [[Battle of Canton (May 1841)|Guangzhou]] and [[Capture of Chusan (1841)|Zhoushan]]. [[Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Shenstone|Rear Adm. Parker]] bombarded the Qing position to little effect, but the assault by the men under [[Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough|Lt. Gen. Gough]] caused the Chinese to flee their positions without a fight.<ref name=backagain/>{{sfnp|Ouchterlony|1844|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/chinesewaraccoun00ouchrich#page/194/mode/2up 173 ff]}} The city was abandoned during the night<ref name=poof/> and fell the next day on 27 August.<ref name=dammit>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 33]}}.</ref> The Chinese had spirited out the entire treasury of [[sycee]] bullion under the nose of the British by disguising it inside hollow logs.<ref name=poof/> Xiamen being too large to garrison, a small force was left to hold Gulangyu.{{sfnp|Ouchterlony|1844|p=[https://archive.org/stream/chinesewaraccoun00ouchrich#page/200/mode/2up 176]}} The next year, the [[Treaty of Nanjing]] made Xiamen one of the first five [[treaty ports|ports opened to British trade]], which had previously been legally restricted to [[Guangzhou]]. Subsequent treaties opened the port to other international powers.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

As the primary international port for Fujian, particularly [[Zhangzhou]] and its hinterland,{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} Xiamen became a center of China's [[History of tea#Global expansion|tea trade]], with hundreds of thousands of tons shipped yearly to Europe and the Americas.<ref name=4thnot1st>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 30]}}.</ref> [[Amoy dialect|Its local dialect]] influenced [[#Dialect|a variety of translations of Chinese terms]]. Its principal exports during the period were tea, porcelain, and paper;{{efn|For 1870, 314 [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] and 240 other foreign ships cleared the port with [[GBP|£]]1,144,046 of exports, apart from the domestic traders.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} This had fallen to £384,494 by 1904.{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}}} it imported sugar, rice, cotton, and opium, as well as some manufactured goods.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}}{{efn|For 1870, 315 [[UKGBI|British]] and 245 other foreign vessels entered the port with [[GBP|£]]1,915,427 of imports, apart from the domestic traders.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} For 1904, the figure was £2,081,494.{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}}} Xiamen was also a center of [[Protestant missions in China|Protestant missionaries in China]];<ref name=lies/><ref>{{citation |last=Cheung |first=David Yiqiang |title=Christianity in Modern China: The Making of the First Native Protestant Church |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8fxPHtinolgC&pg=PA205 205 ff] |year=2004 |location=Leiden }}.</ref> the missions operated the city's two hospitals.<ref name=thatsnice>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28 28]}}.</ref> The merchants of Xiamen were thought among the richest and most entrepreneurial{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} and industrious<ref name=bees>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 34]}}.</ref> in China, but the city was widely accounted the dirtiest city in China.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}}{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}<ref name=thatsnice/> Owing to local belief in [[feng shui]], the streets were "as crooked as ram's horns"<ref name=thatsnice/> and averaged about {{convert|4|ft|sp=us|0}} in width to keep out sunlight and control public disturbances.<ref name=vamps>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 29]}}.</ref> Its population was estimated at 250,000 in the 1870s;{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}}{{efn|The estimate is very rough. Pitcher, writing a little later, placed the town's population at 60–100,000.<ref name=lies>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 27]}}.</ref>}} by that point the island was largely barren and full of roughly 140 villages, with a total population around 400,000.<ref name=barren>{{harvp|Pitcher|1893|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K8QIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA25-IA2 25]}}.</ref> European settlement in the port was concentrated on [[Gulangyu Island]] off Xiamen proper; it remains known for its colonial architecture.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Thomas Kitchin. Composite Europe. 1787. (E).JPG|The first flag in the second row was a flag of Amoy as recorded in a map published in 1787
File:Amoy & Kolang-soo.jpg|Amoy (Xiamen) and [[Gulangyu Island|Kolang-soo]] (Gulangyu) in 1844<ref name=poof>{{harvp|Ouchterlony|1844|p=[https://archive.org/stream/chinesewaraccoun00ouchrich#page/198 175]}}</ref>
File:Amoy town and harbour seen from Kalangsu Wellcome L0034288.jpg|Amoy (Xiamen) Town and Harbor from [[Gulangyu Island|Kalangsu]] (Gulangyu) in 1874.
File:Island of Koolansoo and Amoy by Lai Afong, c1870.jpg|right|[[Lai Afong]]'s {{circa|lk=no|1870}} photograph of Amoy (Xiamen) from [[Gulangyu Island|Koolansoo]] (Gulangyu).
File:Hulishan cannon.jpg|A [[Krupp]] gun at the Hulishan Battery, installed to protect Xiamen during the late Qing era.
File:Amoy_1946_AMS.jpg|Hsia-men (Xiamen) and [[Gulangyu Island|Ku-lang Hsü]] (Gulangyu) in a 1945 American map.
File:Xiamen 一国两制统一中国 20170725.jpg|[[Large-character poster|Large characters]] saying "One Country, Two Systems" and "Reunify China" on Xiamen Island's east coast, facing the nearby [[Kinmen]] Islands, [[Republic of China]] (Taiwan). Similar propaganda on Kinmen face Xiamen, reading "[[Three Principles of the People]] Unite China".
File:Gulangyu-2.jpg|[[Gulangyu Island|Gulangyu]] ''(foreground)'' and [[Xiamen Island|Xiamen]] ''(background)''.
File:DV239 Amoy (Xiamen), China.jpg|A scene in Amoy painted by a passing traveler in 1899
File:Entrance to Amoy.jpg | Xiamen's [[paifang]] {{circa|lk=no|1843}}<ref>{{citation |url=https://archive.org/stream/chinainseriesofv02wrig#page/n5/mode/2up |title=China, in a Series of Views, Displaying the Scenery, Architecture, and Social Habits of That Ancient Empire, ''Vol. II'' |last=Wright |first=G.N. |publisher=Fisher, Son, & Co. |year=1843 |page=[https://archive.org/stream/chinainseriesofv02wrig#page/n139/mode/2up 69] |access-date=29 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220221044/http://www.archive.org/stream/chinainseriesofv02wrig#page/n5/mode/2up |archive-date=20 December 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}, illustrated by Thomas Allom.</ref>
File:Amoy labourers. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869. Wellcome L0056063.jpg | An 1869 [[stereoscopy|stereogram]] of laborers in Xiamen. The first [[coolie]]s left Xiamen for [[Chinese Cubans|Havana]] in 1847
File:Album of Hongkong Canton Macao Amoy Foochow 050.jpg | "Plan of the Country around Amoy", 1870<ref>{{citation |title=Album of Hongkong, Canton, Macao, Amoy, Foochow |date=c. 1870 |last=Morrison |first=George Ernest |page=[[:File:Album of Hongkong Canton Macao Amoy Foochow.pdf&page=50|50]] |title-link=:File:Album of Hongkong Canton Macao Amoy Foochow.pdf }}.</ref>
File:View of the rooftops of houses, Amoy, China Wellcome L0056009.jpg | A [[Stereoscopy|stereogram]] of houses in Xiamen {{circa|lk=no|1870}}
File:Southern Putuo Monastery, Xiamen (Amoy), Fukien province Wellcome L0055717.jpg | [[Nanputuo Temple]] {{circa|lk=no|1870}}<ref>{{citation |last=Thomson |first=John |author-link=John Thomson (photographer) |title=Through China with a Camera |url=https://archive.org/stream/throughchinawith00thomrich#page/n7/mode/2up |location=Westminster |publisher=A. Constable & Co. |year=1898 |page=[https://archive.org/stream/throughchinawith00thomrich#page/96/mode/2up 96] |access-date=23 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508041510/https://archive.org/stream/throughchinawith00thomrich#page/n7/mode/2up |archive-date=8 May 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}.</ref>
File:Amoy Island.png|A 1915 map of the "Environs of Amoy",<ref>{{citation |title=An Official Guide to Eastern Asia |volume=IV: ''China'' |publisher=Imperial Japanese Gov't Railways |location=Tokyo |year=1915 }}.</ref> showing the city and island before the massive land reclamation projects of the 20th century.
File:Yundang Lake.jpg|[[Siming District]], looking north from the southern shore of Yundang Lake
</gallery>

By the 20th century, the local export economy had collapsed due to the success of British tea plantations in India.{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} During the [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] and the early 20th century, many southern Fujianese emigrated to [[Taiwan]] and [[Southeast Asia]], such as in the [[Philippines]], [[Indonesia]], [[Brunei]], [[Malaysia]], [[Singapore]], [[Thailand]], [[Myanmar]], etc., spreading [[Hokkien language]] and culture [[Overseas Chinese|overseas]]. Some 350,000 overseas Chinese currently trace their ancestry to Xiamen.<ref name=autogenerated2/> Some of this diaspora later returned: an estimated 220,000 Xiamen residents are returning overseas Chinese and their kin.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite web |url=http://www.xmqs.xm.fj.cn/qw/qx-xm/qx-xm.htm |script-title=zh:"侨乡厦门" 厦门市华侨博物院 |website=xmqs.xm.fj.cn |access-date=11 June 2011 |archive-date=12 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212193929/http://www.xmqs.xm.fj.cn/qw/qx-xm/qx-xm.htm |url-status=dead }} Accessed 11 June 2011</ref> Others continue to help fund universities and cultural institutions in Xiamen.

At the time of the [[Xinhai Revolution]], the native population of the city was estimated at 300,000 and the foreign settlement at 280.{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} After the establishment of the [[Republic of China (mainland)|Republic of China]], the area around Xiamen was renamed [[Siming County]]. Xiamen's trade during the period was largely conducted through [[Japanese Taiwan|Taiwan]],{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} which had been seized by [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] during the [[First Sino-Japanese War]]. The Japanese subsequently claimed Fujian as their [[sphere of influence]] during the colonial squabbling over China.{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} Japan occupied Xiamen Island from May 1938 to September 1945 during [[Second Sino-Japanese War|World War II]]. During the Japanese occupation, the city provided some shipments of rice to the Portuguese Colony of [[Macau]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Wartime Macau Under the Japanese Shadow|last=Gunn|first=Geoffrey|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-988-8390-51-9|location=Hong Kong|pages=85}}</ref> In the late phases of the [[Chinese Civil War]] that followed, the [[Chinese Communist Party|Communists]] captured Xiamen and Gulangyu in October 1949 but [[Battle of Guningtou|failed to capture Kinmen]]. The same year, Xiamen became a provincially administered city ({{lang|zh|省辖市}}).

In 1955 and 1958, mainland China escalated [[Cold War]] political tensions by shelling nearby islands from Xiamen in what became known as the [[First Taiwan Strait Crisis|First]] and [[Second Taiwan Strait Crisis]]. The Nationalists responded by reinforcing Kinmen and shelling Xiamen. The [[Gaoji Causeway]] built from 1955 to 1957 notionally transformed Xiamen Island into a peninsula, and so it was termed in the [[Great Leap Forward|heady propaganda]] of the time.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} Due to political tensions, the eastern half of Xiamen Island and much of the Fujian Coast facing the offshore islands remained undeveloped in the 1960s and 1970s.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} The Water Police and [[Post-Office]] were situated directly across the water from the American embassy.

When [[Deng Xiaoping]] initiated his [[Opening Up Policy]], Xiamen was made one of the [[Special economic zones of China|first four special economic zones]] in 1980, with special investment and trade regulations attracting [[direct foreign investment|foreign investment]], particularly from overseas Chinese.<ref>Brown, Bill & Brown, Sue, [http://www.amoymagic.com/bhistory.htm "Brief Background of Xiamen (Amoy)"]</ref> The construction of Huli Export Processing Zone in [[Xiamen Special Economic Zone|Xiamen Special Economic]] Zone was officially started on 15 October 1981. In 1984, [[Xiamen Special Economic Zone|Xiamen Special Economic]] Zone was expanded from an area of 2.5 square kilometers of Huli to 131 square kilometers of the whole island. The city grew and prospered. In June 2010, [[Xiamen Special Economic Zone]] was expanded to the whole Xiamen city, and four districts outside Xiamen Island – including Jimei, Haicang, Tongan and Xiang'an – were included into the zone. After this expansion, the area of [[Xiamen Special Economic Zone]] reached 1,573 square kilometers, 11 times larger than before.

Answering the call of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xiamen has focused on dealing with international competition with a more confident attitude and to facilitate the construction of the important hub city of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.{{clarify|date=October 2019}}{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In 2001, the governments of mainland China and Taiwan agreed to initiate the "[[Three Links#Limited liberalization|Three Mini-Links]]" and restored ferry, commercial, and mail links between the mainland and offshore islands. Trade and travel between Xiamen and Kinmen was restored and later expanded to include direct air travel to [[Taiwan Island]]. In 2010, travelers between Xiamen and Kinmen made 1.31&nbsp;million trips.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://biz.ifeng.com/city/xiamen/zoududaxiamen/chengshizatan/xiamen_2011_06/02/36652_0.shtml |script-title=zh:"厦门港为赴台自由行开通夜航 拉动厦漳泉旅游资源整合" |script-work=zh:厦门商报 |via=[[Ifeng]] Business |date=2 June 2011 |language=zh-cn |access-date=11 June 2011 |archive-date=12 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812124441/http://biz.ifeng.com/city/xiamen/zoududaxiamen/chengshizatan/xiamen_2011_06/02/36652_0.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's 2nd-"most suitable city for living",<ref>{{cite news  | last=  Jing  | first=  Fu  | author-mask=  Jing Fu  | url=  http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-01/03/content_508828.htm  | title=  Beijing drops out of top 10 'best city' list  | work= [[China Daily]]  | date=  3 January 2006  | access-date=  25 April 2012 | archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20071027082820/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-01/03/content_508828.htm  | archive-date=  27 October 2007 | url-status=  live  | df=  dmy-all  }}</ref> as well as China's "most romantic leisure city" in 2011.<ref>{{cite news  | last=  Daily  | first=  Xiamen  | url=  http://en.xmnn.cn/travel/201111/t20111104_2057724.htm  | title=  Xiamen dubbed 'Most Romantic Leisure City'  | publisher= Xiamen Daily  | date=  4 November 2011  | access-date=  22 June 2012 | archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20120306194419/http://en.xmnn.cn/travel/201111/t20111104_2057724.htm  | archive-date=  6 March 2012 | url-status=  dead  | df=  dmy-all  }}</ref>