An outing on the island of surprises
An island a short ferry ride from the city of Xiamen has just been listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Anyone visiting it will quickly realise that the listing is well merited. Shao Xinying reports
When you board the ferry in the city of Xiamen, Fujian province, bound for Gulangyu Island, a stone’s away, be prepared 15 minutes later to step onto a sliver of land unlike any other you have ever come across.
Of course China itself is a country of superlatives, ranging from its population to the numbers of cars and bicycles on its roads. Gulangyu Island not only embraces superlatives but then pits them against each other in shuddering contradiction.
Take, first of all, the island’s size, barely 2 square kilometres, which may well have the travellers on that ferry believing they are setting out for a Lilliputian land where everything is small and quaint. Yet Gulangyu, known in the local dialect as Kulangsu, has within its small confines about 16,000 registered residents, which gives it a population density greater than that of many big Chinese cities.
And even as you adjust to the notion that minuscule Gulangyu has a lot of people on it — even without taking tourists into account — start getting used to the fact that unlike hundreds of cities and towns all over China that teem with cars and bicycles, here you will see or hear none. For all intents and purposes, they are banned — save for a few electric powered service vehicles.
Then as you attune yourself to the heavenly noiselessness of carless roads, start getting used to the sound of piano music.
“When I was a child, the sound of piano could be heard everywhere on the island,” Xinhua News Agency quoted a local pianist, Fang Site, 34, as saying.
In fact Gulangyu lays claim to being the place in China with the most pianos — 600 of them to be more or less exact.
How fitting then that it was in Poland, the land of Chopin and Paderewski, and specifically in Cracow, renowned for its superb old architecture, that Gulangyu, was finally granted its due, UNESCO World Heritage listing, on July 8. The listing refers to the island as “an exceptional example of the cultural fusion” that emerged from Sinoforeign exchanges after it became an international settlement in 1903.
These exchanges “remain legible in its urban fabric”, the listing says.
“There is a mixture of different architectural styles including traditional southern Fujian style, Western classical revival style and veranda colonial style. The most exceptional testimony of the fusion of various stylistic influences is a new architectural movement, the Amoy deco style, which is a synthesis of the modernist style of the early 20th century and art deco.”
Indeed any road you happen to wander down on the island is likely to treat you to a potpourri of architectural diversity rich in history.
Just as UNESCO is keen to encourage the world to celebrate and protect the island’s heritage, local authorities have long made efforts to highlight the prominence of the piano on the island. A piano museum that opened in 2000 in which there are now more than 80 ancient pianos on display is popular with tourists.
A piano festival has been held every two years since 2002, one that includes concerts and contests, giving the public the chance to listen to masters playing the piano.
The first piano is believed to have arrived on the island about 1850 with Christian missionaries. Xiamen had become a trading port after the Opium War, under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Later Gulangyu was turned into a public concession when Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Japan and other countries set up consulates, churches and schools.
Sunlight Rock, or Dragon Head Hill, the summit of the islet, offers not only a historic perspective but a panoramic view of the island and beyond as well. At the summit stands a statue of Zheng Chenggong, a national hero for regaining Taiwan from Dutch colonists in 1661. It was on the island that he trained his troops before sending them to Taiwan to fight. The narrow channel between Xiamen and the island, the 500-metrewide Lujiang, can also be seen from here.
Folklore has it that after Zheng had seen the superb scenery he renamed what had till then been called Huangyan, niftily changing the up-down character to a left-right combination, in 1641.
In the same area also lies Sunlight Rock Temple, one of the four Buddhist temples in Xiamen. It was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was famous for attracting accomplished monks from throughout the country.
Ferry tickets to the island from Xiamen can be booked online or bought at the quay. If you are not up to walking on the island there are small electric vehicles to get you around.
Each day ferries shuttle back and forth between the mainland and the island, passengers and locals commuting to the city rubbing shoulders with the thousands of visitors who make it one of China’s most visited tourist attractions.
Its listing on the World Heritage List is likely to make it even more popular, and local authorities have said they plan to ensure the island is protected by applying strict quotes to the numbers of visitors allowed on to it.
WHEN I WAS A CHILD, THE SOUND OF PIANO COULD OE HEARD EVERYWHERE ON THE ISLAND.” FANG SITE A LOCAL PIANIST