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These overseas merchants inject investment back to their hometown, and with the huge amount of capital money that did not take them long to get, they also bring back advanced management with them. Now, more than 2.5 million Min merchants are investing in areas other than Fujian Province.
It's not difficult to find a Min merchant in every corner of the world. There are 300,000 Min people who are engaged in restaurants, trade, and manufacturing. Three of them have companies that are listed among the top 10 Chinese companies in North America.
Compatible and open to the outside world
The business culture of Min merchants comes deeply from the local Fujian culture. Fujian saw many waves of immigration from Central China integrated into the local area over time. The immigration and coastal location shaped the unique Fujian culture, amidst which Fujian people are open to the outside world and very willing to accept different cultures.
By the time of theTang Dynasty(618-907) the region was becoming gradually assimilated into northern Chinese culture as Han immigrants intermarried with the native Min peoples. Later, Fujian (Min at the time) became an important supplier of food to the Southern Song (1127-1279), with rice, sugar, fruit, and tea being the principal crops. At this time trade and shipbuilding also became important, and whenMarco Polovisited the port city ofQuanzhou(which he called Zaitun) it was said to be the home of over 100,000 Arab traders.