Culture, kinship ease passage across Strait

More Taiwan compatriots move to Fujian province as incentives rolled out. Zhang Yi, Shi Xuefan and Hu Meidong report.

An ancient temple in Chengnei village, Xiamen city, Fujian province, has helped attract a group of young Taiwan entrepreneurs who are inspired by its historic and cultural links to the island.

Lai Shu-jen, a young musician from Taiwan, has been promoting rural culture to aid the vitalization of Xiamen. She has written a song about the village's Xiacheng City God Temple which contains the words: "Grandmother told me that beyond the sea, there is a City God temple, that's where our roots are."

In the 1850s immigrants from Fujian who traveled to Taiwan built the Xiahai City God Temple in Taipei which has since become popular with worshippers.

The City God statue worshipped in the Taipei temple was relocated from Chengnei village by the immigrants.

"This connection makes me feel at home while working here," said Lai. The similar culture, way of life, and dialects spoken in Xiamen and Taiwan, eventually influenced Lai and her friends to stay in Fujian.