Discover Xiamen Book Description
Publication Date: July 2, 2014
Welcome to Xiamen Island (厦门， former Amoy). Once part of Marco Polo's fabled Zayton (Columbus' goal), in the 1920s, Amoy was "the wealthiest square mile on earth." A century later, the "Garden Island" has received UNESCO's Habitat Scroll of Honor for its unique balance of growing and greening, making Xiamen a hot destination for tourism, business, study and retirement.
With 38 chapters and 200+ photos, many by award-winning Chinese photographers, "Discover Xiamen explores everything from shopping & dining (with a 100+ item bilingual menu) to business tips, top tourism sites, local sports, culture and festivals, history, wildlife (Amoy tigers and 33-foot pythons), language learning, and humor (with ancient Chinese jokes on relevant topics).
About the Author
From 1976 to 1978, Dr. Bill （潘维廉） served in the US Air Force in Taiwan, never dreaming that in 1988 he'd move with wife and sons 100 miles across the Strait and become Fujian Province's 1st foreign permanent resident. Since studying Chinese at the OEC in 1988, he has taught MBA at Xiamen Univ., written over 100 articles, and published management textbooks (Beijing Univ. Press, XMU Press) and 10 books on Fujian Province, including "Fujian Adventure," written and hosted TV documentaries, acted in TV series, consulted with foreign film crews and research teams, and now hosts the weekly Xingfu Fujian TV program co-produced by 6 countries.
In 2014, Bill was awarded in Beijing as 1 of "China's Top 10 Educators, 1954-2014".
*Excerpts from the 100s of readers' letters*
07 July 2001, D. Aksamit, “Dear Dr. Bill, You have shattered my husband's peaceful retirement. Even before I reached Gulangyu and before I found the round houses and long before I found Amoy Magic (earlier edition), I knew I had found a special place. Am still working on my husband who is not enthusiastic about that looooong flight. Congratulations! That's the best guide to a town I've seen!... Appreciated your "Lords of Opium" essay.”
Oct., 3 2006. Joanne C. “Hi Dr. Bill, The first time I found your "Amoy Magic," English version, I was so happy. I went through just a few pages, then I bought some to take back home. I told myself, you really do a great work for Xiàmén...You can't imagine, when I sent the books to my relatives in Singapore and Malaysia, so happy they were. My uncle, he was born in Gǔlàngyǔ, grown up in Nanyang. Although he can speak Chinese and Xiàmén dialect, he can't read Chinese. He always wanted to get to know more about his hometown, but he can’t communicate with his relatives in Xiàmén. But your Magic Amoy helps him and also he can use it to teach his children, and let those "white bananas" get to know some about Amoy. I was so happy when I got the phone call from my grandaught, who had not returned to Amoy after leaving for Singapore over 60 years ago. She told me it is a good book, and a few copies were not enough for her family. The young generation all want to read it."
20 Mar. 2007 Jean Marc “We are a French family...an old lady selling souvenirs ran to me with your book "Discover Gǔlàngyǔ", which I bought immediately... and read straight away the same evening…. We have very little information in French about this beautiful area of China, even in travel guide as Lonely Planet, Petit Futé or Guidee bleu Hachette. Moreover, I appreciate your sense of humour. So I wanted to say you a big thanks for having written these books, it makes our trip much more interesting…”
Jan. 17 2002, Karl R. (author). “On the trip back to VT I got a chance to read your book. I started to just read through it, but your humor was like a magnet; I wanted to see what your next witticism was going to be. It was particularly fun reading about a place that we had visited and seeing what your take on it was. Well done..."
July 31, 2006 "...I marvel at your ability to synchronize so many small chunks of information with wonderful historical research and personal/family exploration. Your writing is entertaining, irreverent, practical, whim
The book is available in Amazon.com. Please click to open the link.
