During the Sui Dynasty (581—618), a place south of Quanzhou Bay, in southern Fujian Province, became a central gateway for trade from Quanzhou to other places along the Fujian coastline. Salt dealers, fish sellers and heavers made their way back and forth along the bustling coastal route. To facilitate these merchants, a stone pavilion was constructed in a small village named Kuanren, near which a nunnery was later built. A pair of stone lions crouched in front, as if guarding the structure. Shishi (Stone Lion) City watched over what would centuries later become known as Taiwan Strait, and here was one of the starting points of the Maritime Silk Road.
Today, Shishi comprises an area of 160 square kilometers and has a population of 312,000, plus a floating population of 400,000. There are nearly 300,000 overseas Chinese and compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao whose ancestry sources from Shishi, as well as another 300,000 in Taiwan. Approved by the State Council on December 17, 1987, Shishi City, as a testing district for comprehensive reform in China, was founded. Just as a lion awakens from a thousand-year sleep, an ancient coastal town became a famous county-level city in China through innovation. And it’s also a well-known leisure wear production base in China. Since its founding, the city was awarded such titles as “National Model City in Promoting Science and Technology”, “National Model City in Promoting Physical Education among Citizens,” “National Model City in Promoting Culture.”
For China, the winter of 1978 presented an important turning point, when the nation commenced reform and opening-up. On New Year’s Day 1979, the National People’s Congress released “A Message to the Compatriots in Taiwan,” via which the central government announced the goodwill decision to cease what had been a period of war footing along the Strait. The Shishi people were thus able to relax and concentrate on following the country’s pace of reform and opening-up to the world.
In the late 1970s, 10 farmers of Xiaogang Village in east China’s Anhui Province made a bold decision. They gave their fellow villagers the right to administrate the land themselves. The move was technically challenging at that time and may have been offensive to the central government. Fortunately, the central government appreciated and approved their decision and later promoted the concept across China. Luckier than the villagers in Xiaogang, the people of Shishi did not need to take that kind of risk. They just began to experience the reform without any fear or regret.
Thanks to their many relatives living abroad and their so much latest information, the people of Shishi found that the world outside had greatly changed. The people have created miracles in market and wealth since the 1980s, although Shishi is a coastal town far away from those big central cities. A large number of able persons and entrepreneurs who could compete in the business world appeared and travelled the world from here.
Shishi is a city well-known for its leisure wear. The vicissitude of its clothing market reflects the track of its rapid development in business. The sparkling new city of Shishi is overflowing with modern civilization. If there had only been its traditional market and business revival, Shishi would not have had its modern innovation and development.
Shishi is also known as a town inhabited by relatives of overseas Chinese and returned overseas Chinese. It is an ancestral home for 300,000 Taiwanese. Due to its unique geographical location and cultural background, Shishi not only keeps down the character of the Central Plains but also possesses the characteristics of ancient Yue Culture (Yue means ancient Zhejiang) and the overseas culture in the course of its flourishing business culture, handing down the cultural arteries of considerably integrate classical culture of the Central Plains.
Under the influence of such business culture, the people migrating abroad have a natural ability to do business. Enduring all kinds of hardships, like scaling mountains and fording streams, they established their own factories and stores with every effort, and took financial, commercial and industrial activities on a large scale. Among them, we can list numerous successful overseas Chinese from Shishi, who were able to stand tall in the business world.
Due to its favorable investing environment and its graceful binding of the Southern Fujian culture and the love of their native land, the overseas Chinese abroad and the fellowmen in Taiwan swarmed into Shishi to set up factories and established their own companies. Soon, Sino-foreign joint-ventures, cooperative enterprises and exclusively foreign-owned enterprises prospered. Typical of these are the Gold Coast Development Zone, International Tourism Village, Modern Industry Town and Export-oriented Industrial Comprehensive Zone. Shishi, the largest clothes market in China, is famous for its various commodities, wide-ranging sources and specialized sales, as well as its timely introduction of fashionable styles into Chinese market, thanks to its advantage of having numerous natives residing overseas and compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Perhaps it is the secret of such saying: “The guests in the whole world are all surprised at the development of Shishi and the clothes made in Shishi are well sold in every corner of China”.
Here, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Water-splashing Festival at sea are unusual and lively. They attracted so many overseas Chinese and fellow countrymen on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The beaches and shores on the west bank of the Strait are both the place that our forefathers, fathers and brothers set out and the place that our feelings and blood started to outstretch.
The hope of a city, also the hope of a land, lies in the arrangement that is superior to destiny, and in their people’s ceaseless struggle and creation. This is the descendants of the lion! It is under such pioneering spirit that the people of Shishi on the west bank of the Strait create miracles for 20 consecutive years.
The factories, buildings, gardens and streets in the city saw the great change of society, also their people’s sincere belief and business integrity. Shishi is home to many star enterprises and famous brands now popular in China, having their own second generation even third generation enterprise pioneers.
In this new century, Shishi creates a new mechanism and a new cultural value orientation, advancing towards the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. For a city, the age of 20 is like a youngster at life’s full flowering. Shishi, a young and dynamic city, opening to the outside world, is strongly representative of its people.
