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AmoyMagic–Guide to Xiamen & Fujian
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Brief Background of Xiamen (Amoy) (Adapted from Amoy Magic–Guide to Xiamen and Fujian, and “The Fujian Adventure”, by Dr. Bill Brown)
Xiamen - China’s Ancient Gateway
Xiamen is planted smack in the mouth of the Jiulong (Nine Dragon) River, so in ancient times she was called Xia Men, or “lower gate to the sea.” Inevitably, Xiamen became a haven for pirates and merchants (roughly the same occupation). Eventually the name was amended to the present Xia Men, or “Mansion Gate,” which also means “Gate to China”-a title Xiamen well deserved for hundreds of years because Fujian Province, and especially Quanzhou to the north of us, was the Melting Pot of Asia Xiamen hosted foreign traders from all over the known world, as well as missionaries of every conceivable religion. Mohammed himself sent a quartet of Muslim missionaries to China; two set up shop right here in Minnan (Southern Fujian), because they saw that China’s future was in Fujian. And so was her past. Fujian’s history extends well back before the dawn of Chinese civilization 5,012 years ago (more or less; I was told that China is 5,000 years old, and that was 12 years ago). Fair Fujian is an ancient land, but not much is known of the original Min People because they left no written records, other than some Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.) pictographs carved into a rock in the village of Hua’an. They also left some strange relics, like 4,012 year old boat-shaped tombs perched hundreds of feet high on the side of Wu Yi Mountain’s vertical cliffs. I’ve been dying to know why they made tombs like that. Better yet, how’d they do it? It’s a real cliffhanger of a puzzle. Had Eric von Danaken (author of “Chariots of the Gods,”) seen them, he’d have easily concluded that ancient extraterrestrials made frequent stopovers in Fujian, probably for Chinese take-out. Maybe NASA thinks so too. NASA, having failed to find intelligent life on earth, is seeking it in outer space by sending interstellar greetings in many earth languages.
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