Inside Kai Yuan Si, an 800-year old tree
Locals speak Hokkien, a variety of Min Nan similar to Amoy (spoken in Xiamen) and Taiwanese. It is essentially the same as the dialect spoken in Xiamen and Zhangzhou, and is unintelligible with Standard Chinese (Mandarin). Many overseas Chinese whose ancestors came from the Quanzhou area, especially those in Southeast Asia, often speak mainly Hokkien at home. The local speak Minnan language which is called Taiwanese in Taiwan. Around the triangle area, which are Quanzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou, locals all speak Minnan language. The language they speak is same but has different intonations.
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more 
