72-513: Enping , alternately romanized as Yanping , is a county-level city in Guangdong province, China, administered as part of the prefecture -level city of Jiangmen . Enping administers an area of 1,698 km (656 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 483,907 in 2020. Its diaspora accounts for around 420,000 overseas Chinese , particularly in the Americas . The area around Enping
144-617: A city, the first of its kind in Fujian province. 思明 continues to be used as the name of one of its districts. Xiamen is the atonal pinyin romanization of the characters' pronunciation in Mandarin . It has also been romanized as Hiamen . The older English name "Amoy" was based on the same name's pronunciation in the Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien , Ē͘-mûi . Xiamen is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian whose urban core grew up from
216-594: A fight. The city was abandoned during the night and fell the next day on 27 August. The Chinese had spirited out the entire treasury of sycee bullion under the nose of the British by disguising it inside hollow logs. Xiamen being too large to garrison, a small force was left to hold Gulangyu. The next year, the Treaty of Nanjing made Xiamen one of the first five ports opened to British trade , which had previously been legally restricted to Guangzhou . Subsequent treaties opened
288-441: A horizontal line. Inside, it has Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island and other island barriers, making it a good natural port protected from storms. Xiamen has a monsoonal humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cfa ), characterised by long, hot and humid summers (but moderate compared to much of the rest of the province) and short, mild and dry winters. The warmest month is July, with a 24-hour average of 28.3 °C (82.9 °F), and
360-526: A long-time customs manager, was appointed postal secretary in 1901. Appointing a French national to the top position fulfilled an 1898 commitment by China to "take into account the recommendations of the French government" when selecting staff for the post office. Until 1911, the post office remained part of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service , which meant that Hart was Piry's boss. To resolve
432-546: A major international seaport. The port of Xiamen is a well-developed first-class trunk line port in the Asia-Pacific region. It is ranked the 7th-largest container port in China and ranks 14th in the world . It is the 4th port in China with the capacity to handle 6th-generation large container ships . On 31 August 2010, Xiamen Port incorporated the neighboring port of Zhangzhou to form the largest port of China's Southeast. Ever since
504-572: A member of the Double First Class Universities , Huaqiao , Jimei , Xiamen University of Technology and Xiamen Medical College. Xiamen had always been known as Tong'an County since antiquity until Republic of China Era of the 20th century, followed by administrative zoning restructures and naming changes. Tong'an County first appeared in Han dynasty records. Xiamen Island was described as Jiahe Islet of Tong'an County during
576-501: A number of romanizations, including Tongyong Pinyin and postal romanization. Xiamen Xiamen , historically romanized as Amoy , 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 . All together, these cover an area of 1,700.61 square kilometers (656.61 sq mi) with
648-400: A population of 5,163,970 as of 2020 and estimated at 5.308 million as of 31 December 2022. The urbanized area of the city has spread from its original island to include most parts of all six of its districts , as well as 4 Zhangzhou districts ( Xiangcheng , Longwen , Longhai and Changtai ), which form a built-up area of 7,284,148 inhabitants. This area also connects with Quanzhou in
720-454: A provincially administered city ( 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 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
792-609: A true representation of the varieties of Chinese orthoepy as evinced by the Post Office's repeated desire to transcribe according to "local pronunciation" or "provincial sound-equivalents". At the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation in 1913, the idea of a national language with a standardized trans-regional phonology was approved. A period of turmoil followed as President Yuan Shikai reversed course and attempted to restore
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#1732883566134864-565: A well-built fort. The inner harbor on Yundang Bay was also well fortified and these defenses were further strengthened upon the outbreak of the First Opium War . Nonetheless, Xiamen was captured in 1841 between Guangzhou and Zhoushan . Rear Adm. Parker bombarded the Qing position to little effect, but the assault by the men under Lt. Gen. Gough caused the Chinese to flee their positions without
936-586: Is also the host of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade held annually in early September to attract foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland. Xiamen also hold Straits Forum annually. The 2019 edition kicked off in the coastal city from 15 to 21 June. More than 10,000 people attended the annual forum this year. In 2023 forecast by the city government , Xiamen is aiming for 25,000 of GDP per capita measured by USD. Xiamen has highly developed banking services. The biggest bank
1008-517: Is based on the Beijing dialect , a pronunciation standard since the 1850s. The use of Nanking syllabary did not suggest that the post office considered Nanjing pronunciation to be standard. Rather, it was an attempt to accommodate a variety of Mandarin pronunciations with a single romanization system. The spelling "Amoy" is based on pronunciation of Xiamen in the neighboring Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien 廈門 ; Ēe-mûi , which historically contributed to
1080-686: Is known for its many hot springs . Enping is located in southwest Guangdong , at the western edge of the Pearl River Delta and beside the South China Sea . Enping borders Kaiping to the northeast and Yangjing to the southwest. Enping County was established in AD 220. Under the Qing , it made up part of the commandery of Zhaoqing and was one of the Four Counties responsible for much of
1152-614: Is known within China for its relatively low pollution. The area of Xiamen was largely bypassed by the Qin and Han conquests and colonization of Guangdong , which passed west of Fujian down the Lingqu Canal between the Xiang and Li rivers . It was first organized as Tong'an County in AD 282 under the Jin , but it lost this status soon afterwards. Tong'an County was again established in 933 under
1224-416: Is the ancestral hometown of 360,000 overseas Chinese. Postal map romanization Postal romanization was a system of transliterating place names in China developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language form of the city's name from the 1890s until the 1980s, when postal romanization
1296-561: Is warm and dry. The annual rainfall is 1,301 millimeters (51 in). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 29% in March to 58% in July, the city receives 1,893 hours of bright sunshine annually. Frost occurs very rarely, and the last snowfall in the city took place in January 1893, when snow also fell at Guangzhou , Macau, in the inland parts of Hong Kong and in the hills of Taipei . The area
1368-692: The Chinese Imperial Post . As a national agency, the Imperial Post was an authority on Chinese place names. When the Wade–Giles system became widespread, some argued that the post office should adopt it. This idea was rejected at a conference held in 1906 in Shanghai . Instead, the conference formally adopted Nanking syllabary. This decision allowed the post office to continue to use various romanizations that it had already selected. Wade–Giles romanization
1440-588: The Kinmen Islands, Republic of China (Taiwan), lies only 6 kilometers (4 mi) off Xiamen Island. Xiamen Island is the fourth largest island in Fujian province. It became a peninsula after the completion of the seawall in 1955. Xiamen waters include Xiamen Port, Outer Harbor Area, Maluan Bay, Tongan Bay, Jiulong River's estuary area and the waterway on the east side. Outside the Xiamen Port, Big Kinmen, Little Kinmen, Dadan, Erdan and other island are arranged in
1512-628: The Later Tang . The settlement on the southeastern shore of Xiamen Island (now part of Siming District ) developed as a seaport under the Song , although legal foreign trade was restricted to nearby Quanzhou , which administered the area. In 1387, attacks by the "Japanese" or "dwarf" pirates —many of them actually disaffected Chinese—prompted the Ming to protect the harbor with the fortress that gave Xiamen its name. The Portuguese first reached Xiamen in 1541. After
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#17328835661341584-511: The Ming ". When its port prospered under the Qing , especially during the reign of Emperor Kangxi , the island's name was changed to Chinese : 廈門 ; pinyin : Xiàmén ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Ē-mn̂g / Ē͘-mûi again. The island's name of 思明 was in return restored after the Xinhai Revolution that inaugurated the republic in 1912. The island's name of 廈門 was restored in 1933, along with Xiamen being administratively planned as
1656-648: The 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 . Some 350,000 overseas Chinese currently trace their ancestry to Xiamen. Some of this diaspora later returned: an estimated 220,000 Xiamen residents are returning overseas Chinese and their kin. Others continue to help fund universities and cultural institutions in Xiamen. At
1728-457: The Spanish were still allowed to trade in Xiamen. However, the 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. By the 19th century, the city walls had a circumference of around 9 miles (14 km), with an inner and outer city divided by an inner wall and a ridge of hills surmounted by
1800-510: The fall of the Ming to the Qing in 1644, Southern Ming loyalists including Koxinga used Xiamen as a base from which to launch attacks against the invading Qing-aligned Han Bannermen from 1650 to 1660. In 1661, Koxinga drove the Dutch from Taiwan and moved his operations there . His base on Xiamen fell to a combined Qing and Dutch invasion in 1663. The East India Company traded extensively with
1872-470: The " 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 million trips. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's 2nd-"most suitable city for living", as well as China's "most romantic leisure city" in 2011. A large number of
1944-565: The 12th century, Xiamen was also an important origin for many migrants to Singapore , Malaysia , Indonesia and the Philippines . The overseas Chinese used to support Xiamen's educational and cultural institutions. Xiamen is classified as a Large-Port Metropolis. Xiamen is one of the top 40 cities in the world by scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index . The city is home to several major universities , including Xiamen University , one of China's most prestigious universities as
2016-643: The American press adopted pinyin in 1979. The International Organization for Standardization followed suit in 1982. Postal romanization remained official in Taiwan until 2002, when Tongyong Pinyin was adopted. In 2009, Hanyu Pinyin replaced Tongyong Pinyin as the official romanization (see Chinese language romanization in Taiwan ). While street names in Taipei have been romanized via Hanyu Pinyin, municipalities throughout Taiwan, such as Kaohsiung and Tainan , presently use
2088-490: The Japanese ousted A. M. Chapelain, the last French head of the Chinese post. The post office had been under French administration almost continuously since Piry's appointment as postal secretary in 1901. In 1958, Communist China announced that it was adopting the pinyin romanization system. Implementing the new system was a gradual process. The government did not get around to abolishing postal romanization until 1964. Even then,
2160-428: The Ming dynasty, Zheng Chenggong , or Koxinga, a Ming loyalist and general, occupied Xiamen island as an anti- Qing base. In 1650, the seventh year of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing dynasty, Zheng set a military base in Xiamen island and changed its name into Chinese : 思明州 ; pinyin : Sīmíng zhōu ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Su-bêng chiu ; lit. 'Think Ming (dynasty) Prefecture', meaning "Remembering
2232-497: The National Development and Reform Commission. Its measures in areas such as dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, and trading across borders take the lead in the country. Its social credit system has been improved. In 2018, its overall credit index ranked 2nd among 36 provincial capitals and sub-provincial cities and above. The Siming and Huli districts form its Special Economic Zone . Xiamen focuses on
Enping - Misplaced Pages Continue
2304-510: The Post Office, quietly ordered a return to Nanking syllabary "until such time as uniformity is possible." Although the Soothill-Wade period was brief, it was a time when 13,000 offices were created, a rapid and unprecedented expansion. At the time the policy was reversed, one third of all postal establishments used Soothill-Wade spelling. The Ministry published a revised pronunciation standard based strictly on Jilu Mandarin in 1932. In 1943,
2376-519: The Song dynasty (960–1279). It received its present name from the Xiamen Defense Castle erected on the island by Zhou Dexing in 1387 during the Ming dynasty to meet the needs of coastal defense. The name was formerly written using, Chinese : 下門 ; lit. 'Lower Gate', and then changed into Chinese : 廈門 ; lit. 'Mansion Gate' or "Gate of China". After the fall of
2448-554: The Treaty Ports were incorporated into the new service. The Customs Post was smaller than other postal services in China, such as the British. As the Imperial Post, it grew rapidly and soon became the dominant player in the market. In 1899, Hart, as inspector general of posts, asked postmasters to submit romanizations for their districts. Although Hart asked for transliterations "according to the local pronunciation", most postmasters were reluctant to play lexicographer and simply looked up
2520-564: The Wade–Giles system to be specific to English. Atlases explaining postal romanization were issued in 1907, 1919, 1933, and 1936. The ambiguous result of the 1906 conference led critics to complain that postal romanization was idiosyncratic. According to modern scholar Lane J. Harris: What they have criticized is actually the very strength of postal romanization. That is, postal romanization accommodated local dialects and regional pronunciations by recognizing local identity and language as vital to
2592-580: The area was dated to Sui dynasty when Buddhism was first spread to Tong'an region and spread to Xiamen Island during Tang dynasty. In the 19th century, Xiamen proper had two Dutch Reformed and two LMS churches. Xiamen Island was home to three Dutch Reformed missions at "Kang-thau", "Kio-than", and "Chhan-chhu-oa". Xiamen is a sub-provincial city of Fujian with direct jurisdiction over 6 districts . In May 2003, Gulangyu and Kaiyuan districts were merged into Siming District; Xinglin District ( 杏林区 )
2664-636: The colonial squabbling over China. Japan occupied Xiamen Island from May 1938 to September 1945 during World War II . During the Japanese occupation, the city provided some shipments of rice to the Portuguese Colony of Macau . In the late phases of the Chinese Civil War that followed, the Communists captured Xiamen and Gulangyu in October 1949 but failed to capture Kinmen . The same year, Xiamen became
2736-489: The coolest month is January, averaging 13.1 °C (55.6 °F); the annual mean is 21.1 °C (70.0 °F). Extremes since 1951 have ranged from 0.1 °C (32 °F) on 24 January 2016 to 39.6 °C (103 °F) on 9 August 2019. Spring, both by humidity and percentage of sunshine, is the dampest season but typhoons in late summer and early autumn can make the latter period wetter overall. Summer and autumn are marked by comparatively sunny conditions, while autumn
2808-496: The decision to use Nanking syllabary was not intended to suggest that the post office recognized any specific dialect as standard. The Lower Yangtze Mandarin dialect spoken in Nanjing makes more phonetic distinctions than other dialects. A romanization system geared to this dialect can be used to reflect pronunciation in a wider variety of dialects. Southern Mandarin is widely spoken in both Jiangsu and Anhui . In Giles' idealization,
2880-476: The development of five major industries – electronic information, equipment manufacturing, tourism and culture, modern logistics, and financial services. Xiamen's GDP has grown at an average annual rate of 15.4 percent since China's reform and opening-up four decades ago. In 2018, per capita GDP: 118,015 yuan ($ 17,105); per capita disposable income: 50,948 yuan; public financial budget revenue: 128.3 billion yuan; 1,626 hi-tech enterprises, accounting for 44 percent of
2952-478: The dialects of various other cities, allowing the reader to create locally based transliteration. From January 1893 to September 1896, local postal services issued postage stamps that featured the romanized name of the city they served using local pronunciation. An imperial edict issued in 1896 designated the Customs Post a national postal service and renamed it the Chinese Imperial Post . The local post offices in
Enping - Misplaced Pages Continue
3024-560: The early Chinese diaspora from Guangdong in the 19th century. Many overseas Chinese trace their ancestry to Enping, particularly among the Chinese in Venezuela . Migrants from Enping and their families make up about 200,000 of the country's estimated 400,000 Chinese. Emigration to Venezuela occurred primarily in the decades including and following the World Wars , with the largest batch leaving at
3096-634: The end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. Enping was made a county-level city in 1994. The Enping financial crisis later in the decade led to a massive scandal and the loss of financial services in the city. Enping comprises 10 towns, 3 sub-district offices, 4 farms and stations, and 174 village neighborhood committees. Enping is a part of the Greater Taishan Region or Sze Yap Region, which includes Kaiping , Xinhui , Enping and Taishan. According to reliable materials, Enping
3168-532: The formation of the local Amoy dialect of Hokkien in Xiamen . "Peking" is carried over from the d'Anville map which also came from older texts, such as Italian Jesuit Martino Martini 's De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654) and Novus Atlas Sinensis (1655). In Nanking syllabary, the city is Pehking . The irregular oo in "Soochow" is to distinguish this city from Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu. The other postal romanizations are based on "Southern Mandarin",
3240-543: The historical court dialect based on the Nanjing dialect , which used to be the imperial lingua franca of the late Ming and early Qing court. Pinyin spellings are based on Standard Chinese , a form based on the Beijing dialect that is taught in the Chinese education system. After the Kuomintang (KMT) party came to power in 1927, the capital was moved from Peking ('northern capital') to Nanking ('southern capital'). Peking
3312-463: The majority being Han people. There are also some ethnic minorities such as She and Hui. As with all of China, the official language is Mandarin. Migrants of non-Hokkien ancestry usually speak Mandarin and/or their inherent tongues. The indigenous language is Hokkien , a subgroup of Southern Min , with the Tong'an dialect being the most populous and prevalent. The Xiamen dialect is mostly defined to
3384-536: The north, making up a metropolis of nearly ten million people. The Kinmen Islands (Quemoy) administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan) lie less than 6 kilometers (4 mi) away separated by Xiamen Bay . 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. Xiamen Island possessed
3456-520: The populace are migrants. According to the 2020 Census , Xiamen has a population of 5,163,970 inhabitants. According to the 2010 Census , Xiamen has a population of 3,531,347 inhabitants, almost 1.8 times the population counted for the last census in 2000 (which was of 2,053,070 inhabitants). The annual average population growth was of 5.57% for the period 2000–2010. This masks the population explosion in Jimei District , however, which quadrupled since
3528-568: The port of Xiamen on southern Xiamen Island , now located within Siming District . It now also includes Gulangyu Island and the rugged coast of the mainland from the northeast bank of the Jiulong River in the west to the islands of Xiang'an in the east. Xiamen Island lies about one degree north of the Tropic of Cancer . It is divided between Huli District in the north and Siming District in
3600-550: The port to other international powers. As the primary international port for Fujian, particularly Zhangzhou and its hinterland, Xiamen became a center of China's tea trade , with hundreds of thousands of tons shipped yearly to Europe and the Americas. Its local dialect influenced a variety of translations of Chinese terms . Its principal exports during the period were tea, porcelain, and paper; it imported sugar, rice, cotton, and opium, as well as some manufactured goods. Xiamen
3672-516: The port, constructing a factory there in 1678. It was raised to the status of a subprefecture in 1680, but the taxes and other restrictions placed on traders compelled the British to relocate to Canton and Fuzhou the next year. Trade resumed in 1685 and continued until the imposition of the Canton System . However, despite the Canton system which restricted Western trade to the port of Guangzhou,
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#17328835661343744-466: The post office did not adopt pinyin, but merely withdrew Latin characters from official use, such as in postal cancellation markings. Mapmakers of the time followed various approaches. Private atlas makers generally used postal romanization in the 1940s, but they later shifted to Wade–Giles. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used a mix of postal romanization and Wade–Giles. The U.S. Army Map Service used Wade–Giles exclusively. The U.S. government and
3816-462: The prior census; Huli District 's population more than doubled. The resident population was 1,967,800 in 2013 yearend, and with a population of 3.73 million (those residing at least half a year). The total resident population is said to be 4,255,000 in December 2014, without specifying what counts as a resident. By the end of 2022, the resident population of Xiamen has reached 5.308 million,
3888-712: The relevant characters in a dictionary. The spellings that they submitted generally followed the Wade–Giles system, which was the standard method of transliteration at this time. The post office published a draft romanization map in 1903. Disappointed with the Wade-based map, Hart issued another directive in 1905. This one told postmasters to submit romanizations "not as directed by Wade, but according to accepted or usual local spellings." Local missionaries could be consulted, Hart suggested. However, Wade's system did reflect pronunciation in Mandarin-speaking areas. Théophile Piry,
3960-476: The romanization issue, Piry organized an Imperial Postal Joint-Session Conference in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. This was a joint postal and telegraphic conference. The conference resolved that existing spellings would be retained for names already transliterated. Accents, apostrophes, and hyphens would be dropped to facilitate telegraphic transmission. The requirement for addresses to be given in Chinese characters
4032-479: The south. Siming also includes Gulangyu. Its mainland territory is divided among Haicang , Jimei , Tong'an , and Xiang'an districts. In the 19th century, Xiamen's harbor on Yundang Bay was considered one of the world's great natural harbors. Land reclamation has since been used to fill in the mouth of this inlet, turning it into Siming District's Yundang Lake. The municipal government is located on other reclaimed land beside it. The nearest point of Liehyu in
4104-429: The southwest quarter of Xiamen Island, while the Zhangzhou dialect is spoken in a section of Haicang District. The English words "Amoy", "tea" ( Chinese : 茶 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : tê ), " cumshaw " ( 感謝 ; kám-siā ), " pekoe " ( 白毫 ; pe̍h-hô ), kowtow ( 磕頭 ; khàu-thâu ), and " ketchup " ( 鮭汁 ; koê-chiap ) are derived from the local Hokkien. The first evidence of organised religion existed in
4176-517: The speaker consistently makes various phonetic distinctions not made in Beijing dialect (or in the dialect of any other specific city). Giles created the system to encompass a range of dialects. For the French-led post office, an additional advantage of the system was that it allowed "the romanization of non-English speaking people to be met as far as possible," as Piry put it. That is to say, Piry considered
4248-539: The teaching of Literary Chinese . Yuan died in 1916 and the Ministry of Education published a pronunciation standard now known as Old National Pronunciation for Guoyu in 1918. The post office reverted to Wade's system in 1920 and 1921. It was the era of the May Fourth Movement , when language reform was the rage. The post office adopted a dictionary by William Edward Soothill as a reference. The Soothill-Wade system
4320-524: The time of the Xinhai Revolution , the native population of the city was estimated at 300,000 and the foreign settlement at 280. After the establishment of the Republic of China , the area around Xiamen was renamed Siming County . Xiamen's trade during the period was largely conducted through Taiwan , which had been seized by Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War . The Japanese subsequently claimed Fujian as their sphere of influence during
4392-403: The total number of Fujian province; 600.5 billion yuan of total foreign trade value; degree of dependence on foreign trade has reached 125 percent. By the end of 2018, Xiamen brought in a total of 14,818 foreign-invested projects; contractual foreign investments: $ 66 billion, actual foreign investments: $ 37.9 billion; 62 overseas Fortune 500 companies invested in 112 projects in Xiamen. Xiamen
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#17328835661344464-507: 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. In 2001, the governments of mainland China and Taiwan agreed to initiate
4536-480: Was also a center of Protestant missionaries in China ; the missions operated the city's two hospitals. The merchants of Xiamen were thought among the richest and most entrepreneurial and industrious in China, but the city was widely accounted the dirtiest city in China. Owing to local belief in feng shui , the streets were "as crooked as ram's horns" and averaged about 4 feet (1 m) in width to keep out sunlight and control public disturbances. Its population
4608-479: Was dropped. For new transliterations, local pronunciation would be followed in Guangdong as well as in parts of Guangxi and Fujian . In other areas, a system called Nanking syllabary would be used. Nanking syllabary is one of several transliteration systems presented by Giles to represent various local dialects. Nanjing had once been the capital and its dialect was, like that of Beijing, a pronunciation standard. But
4680-471: Was estimated at 250,000 in the 1870s; by that point the island was largely barren and full of roughly 140 villages, with a total population around 400,000. European settlement in the port was concentrated on Gulangyu Island off Xiamen proper; it remains known for its colonial architecture. By the 20th century, the local export economy had collapsed due to the success of British tea plantations in India. During
4752-423: Was marked with a romanized form of the city's name. In addition, there were companies that provided local postal service in each of these cities. A Chinese-English Dictionary by Herbert Giles, published in 1892, popularized the Wade–Giles method of transliteration. This system had been created by Thomas Francis Wade in 1867. It is based on pronunciation in Beijing. Giles's dictionary also gives pronunciation in
4824-456: Was merged into Jimei District; and Xiang'an District was created out of a section of Tong'an District. Xiamen has a diverse and well-developed economy. It is the first to refer to the business environment indexes of the World Bank with the aim of creating world's first-rated business environment. In 2018, its business environment ranked 2nd among 22 cities across the country that was evaluated by
4896-410: Was officially started on 15 October 1981. In 1984, 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
4968-588: Was renamed to "Peiping" ('northern peace'). The Customs Post, China's first government-run post office, opened to the public and began issuing postage stamps in 1878. This office was part of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service , led by Irishman Robert Hart . By 1882, the Customs Post had offices in twelve Treaty Ports : Shanghai , Amoy , Chefoo , Chinkiang , Chungking , Foochow , Hankow , Ichang , Kewkiang , Nanking , Weihaiwei , and Wuhu . Local offices had postmarking equipment so mail
5040-412: Was replaced by pinyin , but the system remained in place on Taiwan until 2002. In 1892, Herbert Giles created a romanization system called the Nanking syllabary . The Imperial Maritime Customs Post Office would cancel postage with a stamp that gave the city of origin in Latin letters, often romanized using Giles's system. In 1896, the Customs Post was combined with other postal services and renamed
5112-644: Was termed in the heady propaganda of the time. 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. 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 first four special economic zones in 1980, with special investment and trade regulations attracting foreign investment , particularly from overseas Chinese. The construction of Huli Export Processing Zone in Xiamen Special Economic Zone
5184-428: Was used for newly created offices. Existing post offices retained their romanizations. Critics described the Ministry's standard, now called Old National Pronunciation , as a mishmash of dialects, bookish, and reminiscent of previous dynasties. While drawing phonetic features from Beijing dialect, many phonological features of Southern Mandarin had been retained. In December 1921, Henri Picard-Destelan , co-director of
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