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There's something very self-contained about the provinces of Fujian , Guangdong and Hainan Island , which occupy 1200km or so of China's convoluted southern seaboard. Though occasionally taking centre stage in the country's history, the provinces share a sense of being generally isolated from mainstream events by the mountain ranges which surround Fujian and Guangdong, physically cutting off the rest of the empire. Forced to look seawards, the coastal regions have a long history of contact with the outside world, continually importing - or being forced to endure - foreign influences and styles. This is where Islam entered China and porcelain left it; where the mid-nineteenth-century theatricals of the Opium Wars, colonialism, the Taiping Uprising and the mass overseas exodus of southern Chinese were played out; and where today you'll find China's most modern, Westernized cities. Conversely, the interior mountains enclose some of the country's wildest, remotest corners, with parts that were literally in the Stone Age within living memory. Possibly because their specific attractions are thinly spread and somewhat out of the way, the region receives scant attention from visitors. Huge numbers do pass through Guangdong in transit between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macau, but only because they have to, and few look beyond the overpowering capital, Guangzhou . Yet while the other two regional capitals - Fuzhou in Fujian, and Hainan's Haikou - share Guangzhou's modern veneer, all three also hide temples and antique architecture that have somehow escaped developers, while other cities and towns have managed to preserve their old, character-laden ambiance intact. The pick of these are the Fujian port of Xiamen , its streets almost frozen in time since the turn of the century, and Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong, a staunchly conservative place consciously preserving its traditions in the face of the modern world. Indeed, a sense of local tradition and of being "different" from the rest of the country pervades the whole region, though, aside from people being more assertive and open - habits sometimes regarded by reserved northerners as uncouth - this feeling is rarely expressed in any tangible way. Language is one difference you might notice, however; the main dialects here are Cantonese and Minnan, whose rhythms, even if you can't speak a word of Chinese, are recognizably removed from Mandarin. And if you can speak Chinese, you'll find local pronunciation very distinct: "h" often replaces "f", for instance, and the city name "Shenzhen" is spoken more like "Shumchun". Less obvious are specific ethnic groups , though they include the Hakka , a widely spread Han sub-group whose mountainous Guangdong-Fujian heartland is dotted with fortress-like mansions; the Muslim Hui , who form large communities in Guangzhou, coastal Hainan and in Quanzhou in Fujian; and the Li , Hainan's animistic, original inhabitants. While a quick look around much of the coastal areas here leaves a gloomy impression of uncontrolled development and its attendant social ills ( beggars are prolific in the cities), most of this is actually contained within various Special Economic Zones , specifically created in the mid-1980s as a focus for heavy investment and industrialization. Beyond their boundaries lurk some respectably wild - and also nicely tamed - corners where you can settle back and enjoy the scenery. Over in western Guangdong, the city of Zhaoqing sits beside some pleasant lakes and hills, while the Wuyi Shan range in northeastern Fujian contains the region's lushest, most picturesque mountain forests. Way down south, the country's best beaches have encouraged the tourist industry to hype Hainan as "China's Hawaii", and there's also a limited amount of hiking to try through the island's interior highlands. Anyone wanting to stop off and explore will find plentiful local and long-distance transport from ferries to trains, though accommodation can be expensive and suffers additional seasonal price hikes in Guangzhou. The weather is nicest in spring and autumn, as summer storms from June to August bring daily doses of heavy humidity, thunder and afternoon downpours on the coast, while the higher reaches of the Guangdong-Fujian border can get very cold in winter.
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