http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Fujian , Xiamen , Gulangyu en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:57:53 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:57:53 +0000 Well let me start by saying a very merry Christmas to you all from this truly magical little island Just had a beer on the beach finally somewhere warm going to post quite a few pictures of Piano Island Gulangyu Island to give you a true idea of quite how diverse this tiny little island is.On the ferry over you see the usual Chinese massive obsession with neon they will light anything up r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-462605.html Gulangyu Xiamen http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-452920.html On the hard sleeper train to Xiamen we met an extremely friendly Chinese student called Jing Jing. Jing Jing was returning home from Hangzhou after visiting here brother. Even before the train had set off Jing Jing had greeted us and immediately offered us a vacum packed chicken's foot with an oreo biscuit to wash it down. Up until this point we were more than aware of the ready to eat delicacies http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-430731.html Blog 10 It's just a few steps....and then there were angels.Well I'm telling you it isn't.Not by any stretch of the imagination is it just a few steps. Huang Shan. Or Yellow Mountain if you prefer. FMG.Seven days ago I undertook to go up Huang Shan. This is what happened...I got up early as you know dear reader I had 6 hours and 3 buses to catch. Well I was happily on my way on the bus to the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-424147.html We are professionally processing and exporting hot and cold massage stones such as black basalt lava stone blue pearl white marble jade chakra stones and other sedimentary stones .Our black stones can be machinecut and polished also can be natural shapes .We also offer stone heaters engraved spa hot rocks jade and cow horn gua sha tools net stone bags engraved word stones garden stone http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-388879.html National Day break What a tripOur 14 hour train from ride Guangzhou to Xiamen Fujian was a blast. The train was packed and we were all separated because we got our tickets so late. I had to have two women move out of my sweet window seat and made instant friends with the guy next to me who was a librarian at a science and technology library in Guangzhou. He was a Hakka and told me all about http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-331303.html 22312214143837630340 261022050565292199683045221040227883047521602 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-326142.html Dinsdag 15 juli.We startten met Chinees ontbijt met gestoomde broodjes groenten zoete broodjes maar wel met Nescaf in plaats van rijstwater en wat Westerse broodjes kaas en speculoos. Voor 1 kuai reden we met de bus naar de vertrekplaats van de ferry bestemming het eiland Gulangyu.We vaarden rond het eiland zodat we een beeld kregen van de Sunlight Rock en het standbeeld van Koxinga die de http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-310092.html Hello allThe next stop on the Rich and Al world tour was Gulangyu a small island off a slightly bigger island Xiamen. To saves ourselves going through an epic 22 hour train journey we splashed the cash and flew from Shanghai in just over an hour. We then took a short bus journey to the ferry port in Xiamen. When we got off the bus the heavens opened and by the time we ran the 200m to the fe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-290245.html It's now day 5 on the road and the time is nearing for me to leave Xiamen. Unfortunately the train for Guangzhou leaves in the evening so I have pretty much most of the day to spend waiting for this train.Yesterday was a great day another early start and very productive day I seem to be waking up early and hitting the sack early. I headed off to Gulang Yu which is only a ten minute ferry ri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-251169.html It's now day 5 on the road and the time is nearing for me to leave Xiamen. Unfortunately the train for Guangzhou leaves in the evening so I have pretty much most of the day to spend waiting for this train.Yesterday was a great day another early start and very productive day I seem to be waking up early and hitting the sack early. I headed off to Gulang Yu which is only a ten minute ferry ri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-251168.html A five minute ferry ride from the city of Xiamen Gulangyu is an island still transitioning from its colonial past. Its a fine example of China's cultural resilience. The look is still European but the vibe is entirely Chinese. A Brief Overview of the History of the Concessions The Opium Wars were a terrible loss for China not only because it legalized a terrible drug addiction and cemented a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-239244.html We decided to venture across the water to Gulangyu a small island across the water from Xiamen where many old colonial buildings and historical sites are still standing. There are beautiful trees some of which are 200 years old and gardens as well. Gulangyu in Pinyin literally means Piano Island. The island was home to a famous music school and contains the world's largest piano museum we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-203970.html We speed through Xaimen is favour of Gulangyu Island which is well worth a nights stay free ferry on the way over 8RMB on the way back. It's just like the set from that old 60's tv show 'The Prisoner' where a spy wants to quit spying and he gets kidnapped and placed in a carefully designed 'village' for ex spies who know too much to live out the rest of their days. The lawns LAWNS are immacu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-176296.html The rain fell like stair rods as we sheltered beneath a street awning in Bangkok waiting for it to stop. It rained most days now. People were saying that the rainy season was starting earlier and earlier each year. Was this a sign perhaps that the effects of climate change were beginning to affect weather patterns that could once have been predicted with a near perfect accuracy Change was not a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-158610.html Located about 3 minutes by ferry from Xiamen there is a popular tourist spot called Gulangyu Island. It has many museums and sights which I did not see because it was raining. But I did go to the aquarium. There are no cars on the island just trams that are at a constant risk of running someone down. The ferry to the island is jampacked and they load the passengers on almost like cattle bu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-155654.html Arrived in Gulang Island on Saturday around 5pm but the ferry had taken us to the opposite side of the Island than we had expected and needed to be. Unfortunately there are no roads here just paths so no cars just the odd golf buggy which made travelling to the other side of the Island interesting luckily for us the island is only about 7km squared. We finally made it to the other ferry port but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-107154.html After a very comfortable flight we arrived safely in Xiamen and grabbed a bus to the harbour. The hostel we booked was actually located on Gulangyu Island so we had to take a 5 minute ferry accross to it. The island is less than 2km squared with a population of about 20000 so it wasn't too difficult to find the hostel. The island is very scenic all the buildings including our hostel are old col http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-102893.html Well here we are in China on Gulang Yu Island and its been raining since we got here How did we get here Well we got the flight that left late and instead of arriving at 8.30p.m we got in after 9.30 and then could only change US50 at the airport and it was Saturday night so we knew the banks would be closed on Sunday. We could not phone the guest house as we did not have the number what i tho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-49114.html Gulang Yu 12th Jan 2006So we have fiiiiiinally left Hong Kong and as a complete change of scene we decided our first stop would be the tiny island of Gulang Yu just off the south east coast. We caught a ferry from the town of Xiamen a nice place where you can get some tasty snacks and after about 10 minutes we found ourselves on a rather charming and very very quiet island. The lack of noi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Fujian/Xiamen/Gulangyu/blog-36652.html