Night view of Xiamen, Fujian province. [Photo/IC]

As a beautiful seaside city located on the southeastern coast of China, Xiamen faces the Kinmen Island and is situated across from Taiwan and the Penghu Islands across the Taiwan Strait. Legend has it that white egrets inhabited this area in ancient times, hence Xiamen is also renowned as being the "Egret Island". Its annual average temperature is around 20.9 C, without extreme hot or cold temperatures.

With a land area of 1,700.61 square kilometers and a sea area of 390 sq km, Xiamen administers six districts, namely Siming, Huli, Jimei, Haicang, Tong'an and Xiang'an. South Fujian Dialect is the city's pervasive local dialect among its 5.16 million permanent residents.

Xiamen has been a trading port since ancient times as well as a gateway for China's opening-up and external cooperation. Embracing the vast ocean, the city has hosted visitors from around the world. Being one of the earliest special economic zones in China, the city remains at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up endeavor.

After decades of development, Xiamen has become well known for its innovation and entrepreneurship, with burgeoning new economic forms and new industries, robust trade and investment and easy access around the world by air, land and sea links. Today, it is a beautiful garden city that projects harmony between man and nature.

In 2023, Xiamen's GDP reached 806.65 billion yuan ($111.43 billion), up 3.1 percent year-on-year. The added value of the city's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries totaled 2.77 billion yuan, 286.79 billion yuan, and 517.08 billion yuan in 2023, respectively, decreasing 4 percent, 2.8 percent, and increasing 7 percent.

Its foreign trade volume in 2023 hit 947.04 billion yuan, up 2.7 percent year-on-year. The city's trade with BRICS countries and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative increased 1.4 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively, while imports and exports to RCEP countries reached 315.61 billion yuan, the same as last year.