『Fuzhou and Xiamen』

FuZhou

Fuzhou is an ancient city with a history of more than 2,100 years. It is one of the fourteen open coastal cities in china. Situated by the east sea and in the lower reaches of the min river, this area of 12,153 square kilometers is populated with 5.83 million people.

As the capital city of the Fujian Province, Fuzhou is the center of the economy, politics and culture of the province, as well as the hub of transportation.

Fuzhou has a honorable title “ civilization by the east sea”. Since the establishment of the city under the reign of song dynasty gaozhu over one thousand years ago, the city has even served as the capital either to the king’s prefecture or emperor’s state ore today’s provice. The rock-face inscriptions in the drum mountain, the luoxing tower in mawei, thegreat iron buddha in the kaiyuan temple and the jinshan temple amid the min river, along with the hundred and more historic sites, have recorded the glory of fuzhou city. The historical figures such as lin zexu, yanfu,sha zhenbing and many others.have always aroused the pride in the hearts of fuzhou people.

Fuzhou‘s hot springs are known throughout china, and so is its jasmine tea. major tourist attractions; gushan mountain, west lake, majiang river, three mountains and two pagodas. gushan mountain in the eastern suburb of fuzhou is the site of one of fuzhou’s five major chan temples, yongquan temple, whose magnificent buildings dating backing to the qing are enshrined with written and stone-inscribed texts of buddhist sutras. The walls of lingyuan cave east of the temple are covered with calligraphic inscriptions in cursive, official and seal scripts.

XiaMen

Located in the southern part of Fujian province and on the west coast of the Taiwan straits, Xiamen is a traditional trading port in southeast China and a famous tourist coastal city fan and wide. Sub-tropically maritime in climate, xiamen is warm with flowers blossoming year round. embracing the beauty of hills, sea, rocks, caves, temple, gardens, flowers and plants, the city has a unique charm of her own with an exotic atmosphere.

Legend has it that Xiamen Island used to be the nestling place of the egrets from  which came the name of “Egret Island”. Today, it has become a special economic zone in china.it encompassed 1,565 square kilometers and has a population of 1.3 million. as one of the earliest special economic zones in China.

Xiamen is empowered with both provincial level authority in economic administration and local legislative power. Since the special economic zone was established in Xiamen, the city’s economy has experienced a sustained, rapid and coordinated growth. The city has been accredited as a national sanitary city, national garden city and national model city for environmental protection and national excellent tourist city.

Xiamen port is one of china’s top 10 ports. it boasts 80 berths of various sizes. there are navigation routes from xiamen to about 60 ports in more than 40 countries and regions. with 62 air routes, Xiamen Gaoqi international airport is a main air hub in east China. A well-developed system of railway and highway transportation links the city with the rest of china. The city has established economic and trade relations with 162 countries and regions worldwide.

In the past, Xiamen boasted 24 points of interest, including the “eight big scenes,” “eight small scenes” and scenes outside scenes. at present, four tourist areas, such as Gulangyu, Southern Putuo, Wanshi hill and Jimei and a sightseeing route on the sea have take shape.