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Xiamen, which is actually an island linked to
the mainland by a long causeway of road and railway, is, like
Shenzhen, a Special Economic Zone. Xiamen is flush with Taiwanese
investment. The local dialect, known as minnanyu, is nearly
identical to the dialect spoken in Taiwan, and the nearest
Taiwanese-controlled islands - Matsu and Quemoy (Kinmen) -
are just a couple of kilometers (a mile, or so) off shore
from Xiamen. Historically, Xiamen was established as a major
seaport in the Ming Dynasty, in the seventeenth century to stem
the southward influence of the Manchu Qing dynasty and restore
the Ming rule. Xiamen was also an unofficial trading depot,
doing a thriving under-the-counter business in silks with
the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch, until a British naval force
stormed ashore after their victory in the first Opium War
in 1841 and opened it up as a full Treaty Port. There is evidence
today of its role as an international settlement in the surviving
colonial architecture of parts of its skyline.
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