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.

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.

[17] 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.

The settlement on the southeastern shore of Xiamen Island[22] (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.

[citation needed] As the primary international port for Fujian, particularly Zhangzhou and its hinterland,[22] Xiamen became a center of China's tea trade, with hundreds of thousands of tons shipped yearly to Europe and the Americas.

[22][11][34] Owing to local belief in feng shui, the streets were "as crooked as ram's horns"[34] and averaged about 4 feet (1 m) in width to keep out sunlight and control public disturbances.

[11] During 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.

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.

Xiamen focuses on the development of five major industries – electronic information, equipment manufacturing, tourism and culture, modern logistics, and financial services.

Hi-tech exports include computers, color monitors, microscopes, power supply units, integrated circuits, stepping motors, wireless telephones, switching equipment, tungsten carbide micro-drills, and similar products.

[74] The white hollow guardrails with 1.5 meters high on both sides won't make people "fear of height" or cause any impact on the vision.

Xiamen has now launched 187 routes to 128 cities, and is developing into an international air transit hub covering Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania.

Among other cargoes handled, Xiamen is the world's largest supply base for raw tungsten materials[83] and sunglasses, exporting 120 million pairs each year.

[citation needed] The Hulishan Fortress (胡里山炮台) is a concrete defensive outpost on the south side of Xiamen, just across the water from the historically contentious Kinmen Islands.

[citation needed] Just like the broad quadrangle courtyard in Beijing, and the Shikumen with Chinese and western features in Shanghai, the arcade building (骑楼) is the symbol of Xiamen's traditional culture.

The center has five initiative key exhibition projects in China, including two special cinemas of X-Flight space exploration and pleasant trip, Tiangong-1, a huge slide, and light show.

Covering 25,300 square meters, the new museum is six times larger than the original, and displays 30,000 pieces of cultural relics, mostly featuring porcelain, paintings, calligraphy works, jades, and stone carvings.

The Oriental Fish Bone Gallery (东方鱼骨博物馆) in Xiamen, Fujian province was founded by Chinese artist Lin Hanbing in April 2006 and is the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

The raw materials, due to their various shapes and colors, are arranged by Lin into realistic paintings like flowers, birds and beasts, as well as abstract artworks imbued with a deeper meaning.

The performer usually tells stories with vivid and funny slang, proverbs or doggerel, using a dramatic tone, strong facial expressions and body language to attract the audience.

[tone] The gambling game has six ranks of awards, which were given the names of winners in ancient imperial examinations: zhuangyuan, bangyan, tanhua, jinshi, juren and xiucai.These are also known as "One Show," "Two Lifts," and "Three Reds."

The celebration called "Song Wang Chuan" (送王船) is a very important and longstanding traditional festival held in coastal villages in Fujian province, Taiwan and oversea Minnan communities to avert calamities and pray for divine blessings.

As with much of southern China, the staple foods of Xiamen have long been rice, seafood, pork, sweet potatoes, various pickled vegetables, and bok choy.

Also called nanqu, xianguan, nanguan or nanyue, it developed from the imperial music of the Tang (618–907) and the Five Dynasties Period (906–960) and continues among people in Fujian's Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou, as well as Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asian regions.

Various folk music instruments are used in nanyin, including pipa, dongxiao, erxian, sanxian, pin(qudi), nan'ai, paiban, xiangzhan, sibao, goujiao, muyu and shuangling.

Dazuigu (答嘴鼓) is a folk comic talk and singing art popular performed in the Minnan dialect in southern Fujian province, similar to cross-talk in North China.

[citation needed] Brahma Temple (梵天寺) is located at the southern foot of Dalun Mountain (大轮山), which was established in the first year of Kaihuang of the Sui dynasty (581).

Even though Brahma Temple has experienced many vicissitudes of life, it cultivated many eminent monks, attracted refined scholars, gathered unceasing burning incense and enjoyed a widespread reputation.

After having a good conversation with them, he knew that they were under the celestial imperial order from the Jade Emperor (the Supreme Lord of Heaven) and were instructed to spread plague among the population in Zhangzhou.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.