Chaozhou is believed to have been founded more than 1700 years ago. The town reached its zenith during the Ming era and was well known as a place of great culture as well as an important commercial and trading centre. Teochew dialect, by which the Chaozhou culture is conveyed, is one of the most conservative Chinese dialects because it preserves many contrasts from ancient Chinese that have been lost in some of the other modern dialects of Chinese.