Welcome to Xiamen!
Xiamen (厦门, Ē-mn̂g in Minnan, Xiàmén in Mandarin, traditional English name: Amoy) is a coastal city in Fujian Province in China. It has been an important port for centuries and became one of China's earliest Special Economic Zones in 1980. The name Xiamen means "door to the house", referring to the city's centuries-old role as a gateway to China.
Xiamen is a very vibrant, affluent and modern place, though by Chinese standards it is a small city — only 3.8 million in the city and 4.3 million counting suburbs (2018). It has many non-Chinese residents and a range of restaurants, bars and stores that cater to them. It also has several universities and some areas popular for tourism.
The most important tourist area is Gulangyu, a small island close to downtown which contains some beautiful colonial buildings and is car free. It is now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Xiamen (simplified Chinese: 厦门, traditional Chinese: 廈門, pinyin: Xiàmén), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ēe-muî / Ē-mn̂g), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, Haicang, and Xiang'an. Altogether, these cover an area of 1,700.61 square kilometers (656.61 sq mi) with a population of 5,163,970 as of 2020 and estimated at 5.18 million as of 31 December 2020. The urbanized area of the city has spread from its original island to include most parts of all six of its districts, and 4 Zhangzhou districts (Xiangcheng, Longwen, Longhai, and Changtai), forming a built-up area of 7,284,148 inhabitants. This area also connects with Quanzhou in the north, making up a metropolis of nearly ten million people. The Kinmen Islands (Quemoy) administered by the Republic of China lie less than 6 kilometers (4 mi) away.
Xiamen Island possessed a natural harbor in Yundang Bay, but Fujian's international trade was long restricted to Quanzhou or to Guangzhou in Guangdong. Under the Qing, both before and after the First Opium War, there was a large-scale emigration of Chinese from southern Fujian who spread Hokkien-speaking communities to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The overseas Chinese continue to support Xiamen's educational and cultural institutions. As part of the Opening Up Policy under Deng Xiaoping, Xiamen became one of China's original four special economic zones opened to foreign investment and trade in the early 1980s. Its former harbor was enclosed using land excavated during the city's expansion, however, the city remains an island connected by bridges to the rest of mainland China. The city is well known for its mild climate, Southern Min culture, and Gulangyu Island, as well as its relatively low pollution. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's second-"most suitable city for living", as well as China's "most romantic leisure city" in 2011.
Xiamen is one of the top 100 cities in the world by scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is home to several major universities, including Huaqiao University, Jimei University, Xiamen University of Technology, and notably Xiamen University, one of China's most prestigious universities as a member of Project 985.