Xiamen

views updated May 14 2018

Xiamen Seaport city in Fujian province, se China. As Amoy, it flourished in the 19th century after being declared an open port by the Treaty of Nanking (1842). Xiamen gained extra strategic importance after the communists took control of the Chinese mainland (1949), and in 1981 was granted the status of a ‘special economic zone’, accelerating its role as the centre of growing trade between China and Taiwan. Pop. (1999) 593,401.