Xiamen, meaning “Mansion Gate,” has four million. Bold in ambition and determination, the city itself is a statement of intent. Hotels and office blocks have risen at an astonishing pace. In part it evokes the forging of the nineteenth century and the American West and carries a whiff of California, with palm trees, highways, and yachting marinas. In another way it resembles a world of our imaginations—Gotham City from the Batman movies, Blade Runner’s dystopian Los Angeles, or the majestic King’s Landing from Game of Thrones. We haven’t seen anything like it before, a ragged history of
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