Gulangyu 1
People were telling me about Gulangyu (Gulang Island) from the minute we arrived in Xiamen. It's a former colonial place with lots of period architecture and museums. Best of all, no cars, trucks, or bicycles are allowed. Naturally, I was happy when we got a chance to go there. But it started raining the minute we boarded the ferry for the quick ride across the water from Xiamen City. It continued to rain for most of our time there, and reached its peak when we climbed to the top of the big rock and my friends asked me to pose for pictures. You can't do that while holding an umbrella against the beating rain, so I took it down and smiled. The only advantage of getting so wet is that you know you cannot get any wetter!
Here we are just off the ferry from Xiamen City.
Xiamen City in the background.
You see that the island is quite close to the city.
Gulangyu Islet, one of 35 key national scenic
resorts, covers an area of 1.78 square kilometers. It enjoys a pleasant climat4e
with agreeable subtropical island flavor, and therefore is known as the Garden
on the Sea.
The Islet presents to the visitors the creams of both
oriental and occidental cultures, and the Island of Pianos and Music Town are
only two of its many eulogies for charm and romance. A wealth of buildings with
exotic architecture styles spark around the Islet, adding to its credit as the
Museum of Architecture. The beauties of Shuzhuang Garden and Haoyue Garden, as
well as the shining night scenes amid elegant atmosphere for pedestrians, all
make your trip memorable and impressive.
One of the shopping streets near the ferry. Gao Zhong Yong (about to receive a Ph.D. from Xiamen University) is on the left, Wang Jian Jun (graduate student at the University of Science and Technology of China, in Hefei) on the right.
Ahead of Zhong Yong is walking Yang Xulin, Associate Researcher at the Third Institute of Oceanography and a colleague of Chen Liqi's. Xulin has my greatest admiration for wintering-over in Antarctica. Jianjun is making sure that I'm not getting lost in all the shops!
The characters on the rock are an ancient poem praising the beauty of Gulangyu.
Jiangjun is admiring this pretty little building.