China Guide
Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan Island
Gulangyu Islet
Price: Multi-ticket for Haoyue and Shuzhuang Gardens, Sunlight Rock and Yingxiong Shan: ¥80
Address: Boat from the pier across from the Lujiang (5.30am– midnight; 10min; ¥1–9)
Gulangyu Islet was Xiamen's foreign concession until World War II, and architecturally it remains more or less intact from that time. In summer and at weekends, the island is packed, but with battery-powered golf-buggies being the only vehicles allowed, the atmosphere is always restful. Gulangyu's narrow tangle of streets can be confusing, but the compactness of the island (it's less than two square kilometres in size) means this isn't really a problem, and any stroll will uncover plenty of architectural attractions.
The island centre is ahead as you disembark from the ferry. A splendid bronze sculpture of a giant octopus marks the entrance to Underwater World Xiamen (daily 9.30am–4.30pm; ¥70, children and students ¥40), with walk-through aquariums, seal displays, penguins, turtles and a massive whale skeleton. The island's rocky eastern headland is enclosed by Haoyue Garden (¥15), containing a gigantic granite statue of the seventeenth-century resistance fighter, pirate and self-styled prince, Koxinga, staring meaningfully out towards Taiwan, the island he once heroically recaptured from foreign colonialists. On the southern shore, the flower-filled Shuzhuang Garden (daily 6.30am–8pm; ¥30) boasts some nicely shaded areas for taking tea right by the sea. The Piano Museum, inside the garden, is a reflection of the island's history with the instrument; foreigners began to teach locals here at the start of the twentieth century and the island has produced some of China's finest pianists.
The clean, sandy beach running west from the park is very tempting for swimming. It's overlooked to the north by the Sunlight Rock (daily 6am–8pm; ¥60 includes cable-car ride), the highest point on Gulangyu (93m), with views over the entire island. At the foot of the rock is the Koxinga Memorial Hall, which contains various relics, including Koxinga's own jade belt and bits of his "imperial" robe; there are no English captions. Follow the path along the coast from here – a beautiful walk on a bright day – and you pass below Yingxiong Shan, the top of which is enclosed in netting as an open-air aviary, thick with tropical pigeons, egrets and parrots.