Xiamen is an island.
Xiamen Island is very beautiful.
Xiamen Island is world-famous.
There are not many cities in China that use islands as the city, the most famous ones are Hong Kong and Xiamen. Hong Kong is famous because of its prosperity, while Xiamen is famous because of its beauty. Most of the cities by the sea are beautiful, such as Dalian, Qingdao, Yantai, Zhuhai, and Xiamen seems to be regarded as a representative of them. Almost everyone who first arrived in Xiamen was amazed at her beauty. The sun is shining here, the waves are charming, the flowers are always blooming, and the good scenery is always there. A small island with a height of 128 square kilometers, red flowing and green flowing, swallows dancing and orioles singing everywhere. It is no exaggeration to say that Xiamen people live in a large garden and a large park. At least Gulangyu must be regarded as a garden or a park on the entire island. The schools in Xiamen, from Xiamen University to Shuangshi Middle School, are also parks and gardens of varying sizes. Even in that era when "I don't like red clothes and arms", Xiamen, which is covered in clothes, still has the charm of a girl.
Walking on Xiamen Island, you will be amazed at its cleanliness; going deep into Xiamen, you will be amazed at its civilization. Indeed, Xiamen is not only beautiful but also clean, but also civilized. Its streets are clean, and there is no seed of fruit crust and paper scraps; its air is clean, and there is no smell of exhaust gas and dust; its sound is clean, and there is no sound and no noise, and there is no foul language. A friend from Beijing came to Xiamen during the autumn and winter. After staying there for a few days, he found that the collar of his shirt was still clean, which was incredible. What makes many outsiders even more happy is that most of the window industries in Xiamen have a gentle attitude and good service. You won’t be hurt and scolded like you might be in Beijing. You don’t have to worry about being a foreigner like you are in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and you don’t have to be ready to quarrel at any time like you are in Wuhan, because there is no way to argue.
All of these undoubtedly come from the love of beauty of the people of Xiamen. The people of Xiamen love beauty because they live in a "sea garden". If you are influenced by your eyes and see, your mind will naturally become beautiful.
It would of course be pleasing to a beautiful island city.
However, it is not so easy to explain the cultural character and cultural characteristics of Xiamen.
In my opinion, Xiamen is perhaps the warmest city in China.
Indeed, anyone who has been to Xiamen will almost agree with the saying that this city is a "sea garden"; and outsiders who come to Xiamen can almost experience a sense of family warmth.
In fact, the so-called "sea garden" or "scenic port" has more than just natural scenery. The natural scenery of Xiamen is undoubtedly beautiful. But the reason why Xiamen is beautiful and charming is probably because it is small, quiet, clean and warm. The old city is small, the new area is exquisite, and the streets and buildings with the characteristics of southern coastal cities are all clean and beautifully decorated. The place is so big, not far from wherever you go, and the shops are arranged very compactly. It is not as "big and unscrupulous" as it is inevitable that some big cities in the north will make it convenient to do things. There are only so many people in the city, and they look like neighbors, and they are easy-going when dealing with each other. Moreover, the character of Xiamen people is generally mild; the style of Xiamen people is generally civilized. When shopping in Xiamen, you basically don’t have to consider "taking care of" the emotions of the salesperson or worry about their expressions, even if you are going to return the goods. We returned 100 appliances in Xiamen twice; so we met the salesperson. I will come to their counter in the future and say hello. The phenomena that you see in some mainland cities, such as confrontation between the two armies and cursing, or fighting in groups on the streets, drinking and crazy, are not easy to see on Xiamen Street. It is often seen that boys and girls are making magnetic cards on the streets with low voices and keeping phone calls endlessly. The woman's sweet voice is coquettish and the man's sticky. The bus came, and everyone calmly and orderly front and back doors up and down doors, and did not grab seats when they got in the car.
Speaking of which, Minnan people’s ’s personality was originally quite generous. What is rare is that Xiamen people are generous and gentle.Since when, Xiamen citizens have begun to feel that it is not civilized to shout loudly, and they also feel that it should not create noise for this city. Therefore, they learned to speak in a low voice and banned the whistle on the island earlier. Therefore, Xiamen Island is generally quiet, especially in Gulang Island. During the day, when walking on the winding and undulating paths of Gulangyu Island, you can hardly hear any sound, and sometimes you can hear the sound of waves like drums. At night, it is even silent and quiet. Only the beautiful piano sounds flow out from some British, French and Spanish-style buildings and float over the island, making you feel like you are in a fairy mountain on the sea.
It is not only Gulang Island that has this warm and beautiful, but the entire island of Xiamen. If Gulang Island is a sea garden outside Xiamen Island, then such gardens are scattered all over the island of Xiamen. Strolling through the streets of Xiamen (except for new developments that have not yet been built), you will often inadvertently find some landscape similar to a park: dense forests, exposed rocks, steps that can be raised up. People living in this environment can hear the birds singing almost every day and smell the plants sent by the breeze outside the window. Those who live by the sea have another enjoyment: whenever you open the window, you can see the blue sky and the blue sea at a glance.
Of course, not every household has such a blessing. But even if you can't see the sea or hear the birds singing at your home, it doesn't matter, because you can still go out for a walk. There are so many places to relax in Xiamen that are beyond the reach of many cities in China. Especially in the autumn and winter, when the Yellow River is covered with ice and snow, and the wind is bleak on both sides of the Yangtze River, Xiamen citizens can wear two thin casual clothes, start from the Lingyun Building of Xiamen University, climb over a small hill, and enter the Wanshishan Botanical Garden in a few steps, and then enjoy the warm wind and sunshine under the thick shade. Of course, you can also ride a bicycle along the ring road to the Yellow Shield and Zeng Yanling Beach, watch the tide rise and the clouds fly, sails pass by, and leave your footprints on the golden beach. I am tired of playing and have finished the food I brought. Then, if I spend about ten yuan, I can easily "chew" home. I believe that every time this time, no matter where you moved to Xiamen, you will sincerely sigh:
Xiamen, my warm and beautiful home!
Indeed, the warmest thing about Xiamen is that it is like a home.
Generally speaking, Xiamen’s interpersonal relationships are relatively harmonious. In school and in unit, teachers, students, classmates, and colleagues get along well. Although "fighting in the nest" is our China's "special product" and there are all kinds of contradictions, under normal circumstances, Xiamen people can generally be at peace and feel a little bit like a family warmth. For example, the names of each other must be given titles, generally refer to names rather than surnames, such as "Lihua", "Yangjun", etc., just like family members. Whether an old man or a young man, he can call his female colleagues so kindly and naturally, without considering whether the other party is a lady or a wife. The same goes for the other way around. Ladies and ladies can also call their male colleagues and classmates like this. This is also incredible to outsiders. Because in other places, especially in the north, even between husband and wife, they cannot be called this, but "the house" or "the father of the child". Even if you are the same-sex students, you should join your name and surname, otherwise you will be shocked if you can't call them. Of course, colleagues should not just call them name but not their surname. At least they should add the word "comrade" after their names, such as "comrade Lihua" and "comrade Yongjun". In addition, they are either "Lao Zhang" or "Xiao Li", or "Director Liu" and "Accountant Wang". Therefore, when people from other places arrive in Xiamen, they will be impressed by this "female sense" and will happily agree with it. I am already used to the way people of Xiamen are named, so if I hear someone calling me with their first name and surname, I will be shocked and I don’t know what happened.
This kind of family-style interpersonal relationship can undoubtedly give people a sense of warmth, and only those who love their family will love their city. In fact, Xiamen people do attach more importance to their family life.There is a saying: "Beijing people's face lies in their seats, Guangzhou people's face lies in their money, Shanghai people's face lies in their pants, Xiamen people's face lies in their houses." Even if a Xiamen person only gets a temporary transitional room in the unit, he must build a large-scale construction and decorate it warmly. So there is another saying: "Guangzhou people eat money, Shanghai people stick money to their butts, Xiamen people spend money between the walls." Although I have never gone deeper, I guess that most of the family life of Xiamen people must be warm and has a strong sense of humanity. Otherwise, why do people in Xiamen feel so reluctant to leave home, and even if they leave, they have to do everything possible to come back?
Home love is not the patent of Xiamen people, but a universal emotion of human beings, and a universal emotion of us Chinese. What is rare is that people in Xiamen are not only home-loving, but also can put themselves in their shoes and imagine that others will also be attached to their homes and yearn for family. Therefore, during the holidays, students in Xiamen would invite their classmates from other places in their class to the fire. If there are too many people coming, parents will give up their room. Many teachers at Xiamen University will do the same, if he deserves to be a Xiamen native. A true Xiamen person will not let his classmates, colleagues, and students still be "homeless" by the end of the year. This has almost become a conventional rule on Xiamen Island. If you don’t believe it, on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, go for a walk in front of the gate of Xiamen University. You can guarantee that you can only see a few "monks" with elegant monks ( Nanputuo Temple is next to the gate of Xiamen University).
Similarly, Xiamen is not the best in the country to decorate your own house. But it is also rare that Xiamen people are even building their own homes when they build their own cities. Xiamen decision makers and builders have a consensus that economic development cannot be achieved at the expense of the environment. Because Xiamen is the common home of the people of Xiamen, we cannot ruin our home for the sake of the immediate economic interests. Around the Xiamen People's Hall, the building that was originally planned to be built was cancelled, leaving a large area of green space for citizens to relax. On the beautiful roundabout, the straight avenue often turns a small turn because there is a banyan tree to be preserved. The avenue is lined along the coastline, with lawns, flower beds and architectural sketches, and parking spaces are carefully designed. So a road that was originally used to improve traffic also became an open park.
Xiamen's living environment is also like a family. In Xiamen, it is extremely convenient to go out, take a car, shop, and make phone calls, and the fares and phone bills are not very high. Xiamen has a large number of buses and good conditions, and in most cases it is not crowded. If you want to "play", you won't spend a lot of money. Even if outsiders arrive in Xiamen, there is no need to be a risk of "difficulty in walking". Because there are street signs with exquisitely designed and pictures and texts at each intersection, telling you how to walk to a certain place, and this certain place may be just a short distance away. This shows that the managers of Xiamen City are actually very good at thinking about their citizens. At the same time, it also makes us go out, just like walking around our own home.
Indeed, this kind of "home feelings" that treats one's own city as one's own small home may be the key difference between Xiamen people and people in other cities (such as Fuzhou) people, and is the most prominent urban community feature in Xiamen. We know that respect and preference for our hometown is probably a common emotion among mankind. There is a saying in many places that "my hometown is the only one that is better." But it seems that only Xiamen people express the emotions of "I am the only one in Xiamen" so casual, so natural, so careless, and so natural. Because the beauty of Xiamen is real, the "feeling of home" of Xiamen people is also real. If it is true, there is no need to be deliberately; if it is true, there is no artificiality. Therefore, although Chinese people often have debates about who is better in their hometown, people often dispel the idea of a debate when facing Xiamen people.
What's more, Xiamen Island is actually so warm, pleasant, comfortable and convenient. Therefore, when outsiders come to Xiamen, they feel "at home". Over time, you will fall in love with Xiamen.Since the reform and opening up, Xiamen's migrant population has increased year by year, including talents introduced from all over the country and even countries around the world, as well as foreign girls and workers from other cities and cities in neighboring provinces. Overall, the door of Xiamen is open to them. Although it is inevitable that some people will disagree with this, and there are a few people with a small intestine who will use their power to make things difficult for intentionally or unintentionally, they cannot form a powerful "xenophobic" force. Perhaps, there is a cultural reason here, that is: the southern Fujianese, including Xiamen, were originally "historical immigrants". They moved from the Central Plains to southern Fujian more than a thousand years ago. Therefore, until now, many ancient Central Plains sounds have been retained in Minnan dialect (such as pronunciating "no" as "Mo"). Obviously, if the Minnan people also openly exclusion, they will inevitably be suspected of "forgetting their ancestors for several classics".
So, why did Xiamen, whose ancestors came from the Central Plains and had a history of long-distance migration, build their city into a warm home and create another culture different from the current Central Plains culture.
Maybe, the reason is that Xiamen is an island, and it is a beautiful island.
Beauty is undoubtedly a good quality. Does anyone want to be more beautiful? However, the appreciation of one's own beauty is likely to develop from narcissism to complacency, and from complacency to self-sufficiency. Similarly, smallness is not a bad thing. Just like "big has big difficulties", small has small bento. The advantages and disadvantages of big and small have always been dialectical. A small city is easy to plan, build and manage, but it is easy to create a low vision and a broad mind. Of course it is very warm. If warmth is not good, is it better to be tense, murderous, or cold as ice and dire straits? However, the dialectics of survival and development tell us: "It is neither lukewarm nor hot, and the grains do not grow". Too warm will make people feel weak and weak, and they will not be able to do anything. Of course, it is rare to achieve great things.
Xiamen people often proudly claim that Xiamen is the best place in China. I would like to prove that this is not false as a foreigner. Isn't it? Beijing is too big, Shanghai is too crowded, Guangzhou is making a big fuss, Shenyang is too dirty, Nanjing is too hot, Tianjin is too cold, Chengdu is too cloudy, Sanya is too sunny, Guiyang is too closed, Shenzhen is too nervous, and other places are too poor, only Xiamen is the best. After I came to Xiamen, many relatives and friends came to see me and said with sigh: You have really found a good place for yourself to take care of your elderly care.
Xiamen is indeed a good place for elderly care, but it is hard to say it is a good place for doing business. Many young people who are determined to achieve something come to Xiamen, finally couldn't hold it in, and went to Shenzhen or somewhere else after they arrived. To be fair, Xiamen people are indeed not very professional. They have small vision, little ambition, little courage and little courage. The radius of the mind is not more than the 60 square kilometers of Xiamen’s urban area: if you take the college entrance examination, Xiamen University is enough; if you find a job, you can just have a white-collar worker; if you live a well-off life, you can just have a good fortune; if you do business, you can make money. The greatest ideal of Xiamen-born college graduates is to return to Xiamen and find a stable, decent job with little income. They rarely go to the world or all over the country to make a big and prosperous career. Even when filling out the application form, their parents first considered whether they could stay or return to Xiamen, rather than whether they could achieve great success in their careers. In short, they pursue more comfort rather than a sense of accomplishment, more attached to small families rather than big careers, and more value life rather than making a fortune.
Therefore, when the Xiamen people proudly declared: "Xiamen is the best place in China", he undoubtedly expressed a fact, and at the same time inadvertently exposed his problems and shortcomings. Just imagine, when a person thinks he is already "the best", will he still develop and make progress?
The biggest problem for Xiamen people is that they can't get out.
Among the residents of cities across the country, it is indeed rare to see people like Xiamen citizens who are reluctant to go out. There are many Chinese people who are relocated to the country, and they are quiet but not active, and they will never leave their hometown for life. But for most people, especially for contemporary educated young people, they are more "can't get out" than "not wanting to get out", or their own conditions are restricted by them and dare not think about it and "unexpectedly" to get out.There are really a few people like Xiamen who have complete roads, railways, sea and air transport, and are relatively affordable, but still refuse to go out. Many Xiamen people never leave the island for life, and many Xiamen people don’t know what a train is. All travel agencies in Xiamen have this experience: it is much more difficult to go out of Xiamen in a group than to enter Xiamen in a group. Don’t say that you pay for traveling, even if you have the opportunity to travel on a business trip, Xiamen people will not be very happy. If the place you go is a little worse, it will be regarded as a "distance" and will be rejected. This is obviously completely wrong. First, I believe that there is no better place in the world (at least China) than Xiamen, and that I will suffer everywhere; second, I think that what is happening in other places has nothing to do with me, and it doesn’t matter whether I look at it or not, and it will be useless to read it. Therefore, even if Xiamen people go to other places, they can't see any reputation. Apart from "Xiamen is better", they can never come to any other conclusions.
It is so difficult to travel in other places on business or travel, and it is even more difficult to work and school in other places. Every year in the college entrance examination, candidates with better grades in Xiamen often rush to apply for Xiamen University, and even Tsinghua and Peking University are reluctant to go to, let alone other schools. They actually know that schools like Xi'an Jiaotong University are very good, but they just don't want to go because they don't want to leave Xiamen. It would be fine if there is no good school in Xiamen. Since there is a national key university, why do you still have to go to other places? They can't figure it out. A parent once glared at me and asked, "So what if I go to school in another place? Isn't I going back to work in Xiamen after graduation?" I don't understand what she said "not yet". Who stipulates that children in Xiamen should or can only work in Xiamen after graduation, and cannot work in other places? "Loyal bones are buried everywhere in the green mountains", "There are no fragrant grasses everywhere in the world", who said that you can only work in Xiamen? It seems that I am still "demarcating the ground into a prison".
In fact, the world is very big, and there are many good places in the world, not only Xiamen. No matter how good Xiamen is, it cannot concentrate all the good things in the world, right? Not only are there better places in the world and in China than Xiamen, but even places that are not as good as Xiamen in general will have their unique benefits. We should really walk around, look around, and compare all aspects to broaden our horizons and broaden our minds. Being happy to guard a place will undoubtedly be "euthanasia". Be happy, but the vitality of life will wear down and depress. What's more, walking around and looking around is itself an experience of life. Therefore, even if you go to poor and backward areas, if you regard it as an experience, you will not go by yourself. There are all kinds of flavors in life, and bitterness is also one of them. Children who grew up in this beautiful and warm garden in Xiamen should suffer a little, otherwise their life experience will be too monotonous and their mind will rarely be enriched.
Indeed, people sometimes need to "live elsewhere" and live a "different life". Only by seeing more can one know more, but it is inevitable that one will be strange if you see less. Since Xiamen people love their city and homes so much, they should go out for a walk, just like visiting other people's homes so that they can build their own homes better. Of course, we have no intention to ask Xiamen to become Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou or Shenzhen. There is no possibility, nor is there any need for this. Frankly speaking, the city is too big, which is actually not good. Xiamen's urban scale is now just right. Moreover, Xiamen is now in a stage of healthy development. Many problems faced by other big cities, such as environmental pollution, traffic congestion, housing tension, water resource panic, etc., are not available in Xiamen. But small towns also have troubles and problems with small towns. The big taboo in a small city is that it is a petty family and a small mind. The remedy is to go out for a walk often. Therefore, we should encourage Xiamen people to go out of Xiamen, and we should even stipulate that Xiamen college and technical secondary school students must study or work in other places for several years before they can return to Xiamen to work. Of course, we should also selectively introduce talents from all over the country to change the citizen structure of Xiamen. If this is possible, the "door" of Xiamen will not become a small door that is in seclusion and self-defense, but will be sure to become a gate that is compatible with various cultures and absorbs the world's storms.
