Xiamen Island

The fourth largest island in Fujian Province is located on Xiamen Island at the mouth of Jiulong River in South Fujian. It used to be an island. After the construction of Jimei seawall and Xinglin seawall, it was connected with the mainland and became a peninsula. The outer islands of the port area are scattered all over the world, surrounded by mountains in the port area, the width and depth of the port are deep, and it is not frozen all the year round. It is a natural harbor with superior conditions.

Xiamen Island

This entry is compiled and applied by "popular science China" Science Encyclopedia

to examine

.

Xiamen Island, also known as "Ludao", is located in the bay of Southern Fujian, with an area of 158 square kilometers and a population of 1.152 million (2018)

.

Xiamen, formerly known as jiaheyu, was named Xiamen Island in Ming Dynasty according to "Xiamen City". It was subordinate to Quanzhou Prefecture and was established as a city in 1933. As a result of reclamation, the area has expanded from 110.80 square kilometers to 157.76 square kilometers (including Gulangyu Island). The only two largest inner bays on the island are Wuyuan Bay and Yuandang harbor (now called Yuandang lake because of reclamation). Xiamen Island is the birthplace of Xiamen Special Economic Zone. It has Xiamen's earlier commercial and political center. Among the six districts in Xiamen, Huli and Siming are the only ones not connected to the mainland.

The sea area between Xiamen Island and Haicang peninsula is called Xiamen West Port, which is the earliest port for trading ships entering and leaving Xiamen. The highest peak on the island is yundingyan, 339.6 meters above sea level. Because of the regionalization, the earliest Xiamen only refers to Xiamen Island. In a broad sense, Xiamen area now includes Haicang, Xinglin, Jimei, Tong'an, Xiang'an, Dadeng Island, Gulangyu and other islands.

There are many busy streets in the southwest of Xiamen Island, such as Lujiang Road, Xiahe Road, Xiamen Zhongshan Road, etc. due to the scarcity of surrounding land, many of the surrounding roads are built by cutting mountains and holes and reclamation. The northeast part of the island has the famous Huandao Road and Wuyuanwan, which is one of the main tourist areas in Xiamen and the central business district.

The outer islands of Xiamen port area are scattered all over the world, surrounded by mountains in the port area. The port is wide and deep. It is not frozen all the year round. Ten thousand DWT ships are not affected by tides and can enter and leave Xiamen Port freely. It is a natural port with superior conditions.

Evolution of organizational system

Since ancient times, Xiamen has been an important coastal defense area in Southeast China, originally belonging to Tong'an county. During the yuan and Ming Dynasties, the garrison was set up to guard against Japanese pirates.

In 282, Jian'an county was set up, and Dong'an County was changed to Jin'an County, which was under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Putian. In the fourth year of Tianfu in the later Jin Dynasty (939), Datong was promoted to Tongan County, belonging to Quanzhou Prefecture.

In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms of Fujian, the county was officially established in 933. For details, please refer to relevant articles on Xiamen's historical evolution.

In the second year of Tang Guangqi (886), Wang Chao conquered Quanzhou as a governor. In 947, the Southern Tang Dynasty annexed the state of min, and Tong'an was ruled by Wang Chao and the state of min, which lasted for 61 years. In 909, the first year of Kaiping, Wang Shenzhi was the king of Fujian. He established the state of Fujian, with Fuzhou as its capital and Datong Chang as its jurisdiction. In 949, the Southern Tang Dynasty promoted Quanzhou to Qingyuan Army (jurisdiction of Quanzhou, Putian, Zhangzhou). In 963, the Song Dynasty changed the Qingyuan army into the Ping Navy, with Chen Hongjin as the governor and Tong'an County as the Ping Navy. In 978, Chen Hongjin took over the territory of the Song Dynasty, and Tong'an county was brought into the territory of the Song Dynasty along with the Pinghai Navy. In the same year, song Fuping's navy was Quanzhou. Song belonged to the Navy and Quanzhou. Yuan belongs to Quanzhou road. Ming Dynasty belongs to Quanzhou Prefecture. "Xiamen City" was built in 1394, the 27th year of Hongwu. In 1650, Zheng Chenggong stationed in Xiamen. In 1655, he set up Siming Prefecture in jiaheli, Suide Township, Tongan county. In 1680, it was abolished. Since the Qing Dynasty, it was subordinate to Fujian Xingquan Yongdao. In the 23rd year of Kangxi (1684), taixia bingbei road was set up under the jurisdiction of Xingquan road. In the 25th year of Kangxi (1686), the Defense Department was set up under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture. Since the 5th year of Yongzheng (1727), Xingquan Yongdao has been under the jurisdiction of Xingquan road In 1903, Gulangyu Island in Xiamen was reduced to a "public concession". In 1912, it was withdrawn from the government, and the name of Xingquan Yongdao was changed to nanludao. In 1913, it was changed to Xiamen Dao, which governed Xiamen, Putian, Quanzhou and Datian counties. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), jiaheli (Xiamen) in Tong'an county and Ximen, Dadeng and Xiaodeng set up Siming county. On April 28, Siming county government was formally established and subordinate to Fujian military government. In September, Siming Prefecture was promoted and abolished. In 1915, Jinmen and Dadeng were separated to set up Jinmen county. In the same year, nanludao was set up (renamed Xiamen Road in 1914, governing Quanzhou, Putian, Xiamen and Datian counties). In 1933, the "people's revolutionary government of the people's Republic of China" (namely "Fujian people's government") established Xiamen city. Tong'an county and Xiamen city are subordinate to Xingquan Province, which governs Quanzhou, Putian and xuangai Xiamen special city. In January of the next year, after the failure of the "Fujian coup", Xiamen special municipal government and Xingquan province were abolished, and the system of Siming county and Tong'an county were both directly under the jurisdiction of Fujian provincial government. In 1934, Tong'an and Siming counties belonged to the fifth administrative supervision district (stationed in Tong'an). In April 1935, Xiamen city was set up on seven islands including Xiamen and Gulangyu. Siming county was abolished as Heshan special district, and Tong'an County belonged to the fourth administrative supervision district (stationed in Tong'an, governing Quanzhou, Putian and Xiamen). From May 1938 to September 1945, Xiamen island was occupied, and Tong'an county still belonged to the fourth administrative supervision district of Fujian Province, In 1939, the District moved to Yongchun County. In 1946, the District moved to Jinjiang county. In October 1945, the system of Xiamen city was restored, with four districts, namely, the center (later changed to Siming), Kaiyuan, Gulangyu and Heshan. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, the national government restored the organizational system of Xiamen municipal government, which was directly under the jurisdiction of Fujian provincial government. Since the 32nd year of the Republic of China, in 1943, the national government of Fujian Province ordered the withdrawal of districts, the construction of townships, the establishment of insurance, and the consolidation of townships. In September 1949, it was under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou, Putian and Xiamen. In July 1950, Tong'an county was transferred to Quanzhou administrative inspector Office of Fujian Province, which was in charge of Quanzhou, Putian and Tong'an counties, and later renamed Jinjiang District.

On September 26, 1949, the XPCC held a combat meeting in Quanzhou to determine the operational plan of simultaneously capturing Xiamen and Jinmen. On October 4, BINGTUAN issued a combat pre order: to attack Xiamen with three divisions of the 31 army and two divisions of the 29 army, a total of five divisions; to attack Jinmen with one strengthened division of the 28 army and command two divisions of the 29 army, a total of two divisions. All departments immediately entered the coastal areas of Nan'an, Tong'an and Shima, and began to prepare for sea crossing operations. With the assistance of Xiamen underground working committee of the Communist Party of China, underground organization of Xiamen University of the Communist Party of China and many middle schools in Longxi and Jinjiang areas, the armed forces collected more than 630 wooden boats and more than 1600 boatmen along the coast of Shima, Tong'an, Nan'an and Jinjiang, and made a large number of simple life-saving floating devices. The vast numbers of officers and men braved the attack of Kuomintang planes and artillery, regardless of seasickness and vomiting, practiced their tactics and techniques day and night, and soon mastered the basic essentials of sea crossing operations. In order to grasp the enemy's situation, various departments organized observation across the sea, and some troops also carried out cross sea reconnaissance.

On the night of October 12, 1949, Hu Weizhi, deputy monitor of the 92 division reconnaissance team, and Zhang Wensheng, a soldier, accompanied the vice captain of the 92 division to the Shenshan and Zhaishang areas of Xiamen for reconnaissance. When Hu and Zhang found out the terrain and enemy situation of several main landing areas and rushed back to the rendezvous point, the ship had already returned due to exceeding the agreed time. They fought with the wind and waves tenaciously for nearly seven hours, swam more than 4000 meters and brought back important information. The 31st army awarded Hu Weizhi and Zhang Wensheng the titles of "heroes of cross sea reconnaissance". In addition, the Xiamen underground working committee of the Communist Party of China and the people also provided detailed information about the Xiamen garrison, providing an important basis for battle deployment.

On the night of October 9, 1949, the 2nd Battalion of 251 regiment of 84th division of 28th army and the 259th regiment of 87th division of 29th army launched a battle to capture Dadeng Island in the north of Jinmen. On the night of October 10, they annihilated the garrison and captured the island. On the night of the 11th, the 251th regiment seized Xiaodeng island. On the 15th, 245 regiment of 82nd division of 28th army captured Jiaoyu island.

On October 11, 1949, the 10th military regiment of the third field army, Dianfu, said: in order to prevent the enemy from escaping, it is better to attack Xiamen and Jinmen at the same time. However, considering the actual situation of both sides, is it possible to attack Xiamen with five divisions and Jinmen with two divisions? If conditions are ripe, we can attack at the same time. Otherwise, it would be safer to use one force to clamp down on Kinmen and attack Xiamen first. It's up to you to decide exactly how to fight according to the actual situation. On the basis of this instruction, the 10th corps and the 28th Army decided to change their plan to take Xiamen first and then Jinmen, and to launch a battle to liberate Xiamen on October 15.

Xiamen Island is surrounded by the mainland in the west, South and North, and faces Kinmen across the sea in the East. The West Bank and the north bank are relatively close to the mainland, most of the beaches can be landed, and the nearshore is hilly with little fluctuation, which is convenient for development of attack; the east bank and the south bank are narrow in water depth, which is easy to land, but controlled by Jinmen artillery fire, and the southeast coast is mountainous, which is not easy to seize the landing site; Gulangyu, separated from Xiamen, is a small island with steep bank, easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is the barrier of Southwest Xiamen. With the North Peninsula as the defense focus, the Kuomintang troops took Qi

Chinese PinYin : Sha Men Dao