[photopress:xiamen.jpg,full,alignright]Xiamen and the adjoining island of Gulangiu — known as the land of a thousand pianists because together they have the highest population of piano players per family in the world.
It is one of the few places where it would be easy enough to muster enough pianists to play Carl Czerny’s arrangement of Rossini’s William Tell overture for 16 pianists on eight pianos.
Xiamen is one of China’s most active ‘special economic zones’.
Xiamen, which now boasts of one of the highest foreign investments in China, was declared an SEZ in the 1980s. It traditionally dealt with leather, apparel, hardware, antiques and jades. It has 600 financial institutions and has trade links with as many as 162 nations, including India.
The local Hua Cheng Music Company is home to at least 70 gleaming black and brown Hamilton and Baldwin pianos. Their prices range from RMB10,000 ($1,450) to RMB70,000($10,160).
According to an estimate by the trade authorities in Xiamen, in 2007 the city’s GDP amounted to RMB137.5 billion (about $20 billion), an increase of 16.1% over the previous year.
Source: Thaindian News