Xiamen - City Name

City Name

The area where Xiamen now exists was known as Tong'an (Chinese: 同安; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâng-Oaⁿ) in some Han Dynasty records, though the area was not significantly settled by Han Chinese until several centuries later. Xiamen Island itself was known as Jiahe-Yu (Chinese: 嘉禾屿; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ka-hô-sū) up until Ming Dynasty General Zhou Dexing built the "Xiamen Castle" on the island in 1387 AD to defend against Japanese pirates.

Originally, the name Xiamen was written "下門" (pinyin: Xiàmén; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ē-mn̂g; literally "lower gate", BP: Êbbńg), possibly referring to its position at the mouth of the Nine Dragon River. The Zhangzhou dialect of Min Nan reads these characters as "ε̄-mûi", the source of the name "Amoy". The dialect is still spoken in the west and southwest of the city. Later, the authorities found "下門" too unrefined and changed the name to the modern toponym "廈門", which has the same pronunciation in Mandarin—not in Min Nan, however—and literally means "The Gate of the Grand Mansion". The name continues to be pronounced Ē-mn̂g in Min Nan, effectively using the older name.