Gulang Yu (Xiamen)

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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 ride from Xiamen. Gulang Yu used to have a well established foreign community in the 1880's. I'd heard lots about it before arriving but it was even better than I had expected.

One of the islands claims to fame is that many of China's famous musicians hail from here. I had been told some people call it the island of piano's due to the fact that most house have a piano! I can't say during my day on the island I heard any "live" music being played but those in charge of the island have installed numerous speakers on the streets which pipe out soft piano music as you wander around.

The island itself is a wonderful collection of old colonial buildings, narrow alley's and bright open courtyards. However like all beautiful places in the world I wasn't alone! Thankfully I was there on a weekday, I can only imagine what kind of a nightmare the place must be on a weekend.

I decided that the best way to tackle this island would be to basically head off in the opposite direction to the vast number of tour groups.

The maze of streets on the island makes it a perfect place to stroll around and it's quite easy to lose your bearings, but what did I care? I had a whole day to spend here so I was very happy to lose myself!

The main attraction on the island is "Sunlight Rock (riguang yan gongyuan)" I didn't actually climb the rock itself due to the high number of people I could see who were already at the top. From the bottom a large statue of "Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong)" can be seen which looks out over the sea towards nearby Taiwan. Having done my reading I know that Koxinga was a Ming loyalist who made the island his home having defeated the Dutch. Impressive!

The weather was once again beautiful but unfortunately like all Englishmen abroad I underestimated the power of the sun and wind and awoke this morning with a small case of sunburn!

Other worthwhile sites on the island were the Roman Catholic church (Tianzhujiao Tang), Haoyue Garden (Haoyue Yuan) and the southern beach near Shuzhuang Garden (Shuzhuang Huayuan) where I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours soaking up life as it passed me by.

Having decided to come on this trip I made it one of my priorities that I should only eat Chinese food (I had a coffee in McDonalds the other day but this doesn't count) So yesterday I ended up having lunch in a small street restaurant. It seemed quite enough when I sat down but little did I know that five minutes later it would be filled with teenagers spilling out from the nearby school all wanting to have their lunch too! An interesting experiences of giggling and calls of "laowi" but great food and so cheap!

I did take many pictures but I haven't been able to upload any as yet due to the slow speed of the computers where I'm staying, I will however aim to change this soon.

It was back to Xiamen in the evening and a DVD in the common room and couple of cold local beers with some fellow Englishmen and off to bed early! Travelling around is a tiring business!

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