Wenzhou natives speak Wu Chinese, which is the spoken language of the people of neighbouring Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Shanghai. However, geographic isolation and the immigration of Southern Min Chinese speakers from nearby Fujian Province, have caused Wenzhou's spoken language to evolve into a dialect that has been described as "notoriously eccentric."[citation needed] As a result, people from all over China, including those from other regions of Zhejiang and

Fujian have trouble understanding the dialect in Wenzhou, which is known as Wenzhouhua ("Wenzhou Dialect" Chinese: 温州话, or "Wenzhounese").