Some notable features of Gulangyu Island

There are also some notable features of Gulangyu Island including the Christ the King Church, which was built by the Spaniards in 1917 with a gothic architectural style, and has a land area of 220 square meters located at Lujiao Road.

There is the Celebrities World with more than 70 wax portraits of Chinese and foreign leading public figures.

We also stumbled upon a hotel named Xiamen Marine Garden. It is a four-star hotel with three sides facing the sea located at Shuzhuang Garden.



Soon after we decided it was time to go back to the city proper, so we headed to the Gulangyu Ferry Terminal.

UNDERWATER WORLD XIAMEN

Soon after we went to Underwater World Xiamen located near the Gulangyu Ferry Wharf. It covers an area of 175,000 square meters, and its floorage area totals 7,500 square meters. It exhibits 350 varieties of freshwater and seawater fish such as chinese sucker, sturgeon and paddle fish, Japan giant spider crabs, Australia sawfish and seadragon. Peru penguins and piranha, arapima, mapfish of Amazon River.

Japan giant spider crab is the largest known crab with a weigh reaching 30kg, that can be found in the deep waters (about 50-300 metres) in Northern Japan. A male one measures as long as 4 metres cross its claw tips.

Walking along under the 80-metre tunnel and 1.5 meters wide, visitors get thrillingly close to the sharks, stingrays, giant groupers and schools of coral reef fish.



It also includes the world largest specimen of sperm whale and its skeleton, sea hall, penguin hall, fresh water fish hall, and dolphin and sea lion performance hall.

The sperm whale skin specimen in exhibition, measuring 18.6 metres in length and 48 tons in weight.

The world's largest and most complete sperm whale skeleton specimen consists of 232 pieces of bones. Its skull measured 6.2 meters in length , 2.2 metres in width and 1.7 meters in height.

Underwater World Xiamen is open daily from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Admission Fee is 70 Yuan per person.

THE STONE SCULPTURE OF ZHENG CHENGGONG

Soon after we procced to Haouyue Park, the only sculpture park built in commemoration of the national hero Zheng Chenggong. The name of the park derives from the line "I had a sleepless night thinking of your Majesty as the bright moon light streamed in through the curtain", from the "Two Yanping Lords Poetry Collection" composed in remembrance of the hero and the yearning for the return of the motherland's treasure island of Taiwan.

The stone sculpture of Zheng Chenggong stands like a giant on Fuding Rock. It's 15.7 meters high, 1400 tons, and is carved out of 625 pieces of Quanzhou white high quality granite. It's the largest stone historical figure sculpture in Xiamen at present. Standing on the upper level, visitors can see the zigzag walk to the Emperor's palace and the small lighthouse.


The sculpture is divided into 25 layers, the base is 3 meters deep in the rock, and there is the thunder-proof equipment, so it can resist scale 12 violent typhoon and earthquake of magnitude above 8. The sculpture attracts thousands of visitors by its magnificent mould and profound intrinsic ideological level.

BRONZE SCULPTURE OF CANE SHIELD ARMY

After a couple of minutes at the beach, we popped round to the place where the Bronze Sculpture known as "Driving away the Invaders by Cane Shield Army" is located. According to the records, the Cane Shield Army was organized by Zheng Chenggong, they were incomparably capable and vigorous and brave and battlewise, and won many victories in driving the Holland invaders out of Taiwan.

The bronze sculpture of "Driving away the Invaders by Cane Shield Army" lies in the center square of the Bright Moon Park. It's 123 meters long, 4.7 meters high and 18 tons. It's the largest bronze historical-figure sculpture in Xiamen at present. The foreground of the sculpture is Zheng Chenggong galloping ahead with sword drawn in the middle, and escorted by the generals and advisers. The background is the huge and grand cane shield army, the grand spectacle and the various vivid moulds have high artistic value. This sculpture was awarded "Excellent Prize" in the national city-sculpture competition in 1994.

GANGZIHOU BEACH AND YU GARDEN

Then we began heading back towards Gangzihou bathing beach. It was a great place to stroll. The place wasn't too packed out and no one dared to swim probably because of the cool weather at that time. Everyone just enjoyed the sight and the soothing atmosphere.

There were also speedboats nearby for rent that accommodate customers who were looking for a more exciting activity and who wanted to venture into the sea.



Next, we went to Yu Garden, which is a memorial garden for Lin Qiaozhi, the outstanding medical scientist of the people and path-breaker for the science of gynecology and obstetrics in China.

QINYUAN GARDEN

Soon we arrived at Qinyuan Garden, which is connected to the Sunlight Rock through cable cars. We just took a couple of minutes to amble around the area.

Birds Aviary

Cinema

Hero Boulder

It has entertainment projects including the Birds Aviary, which is situated on the side of the mountain that covers an area of 7,000 square meters. It is home to nearly 1,000 birds, which fall into 100 varieties. Around the complex, it has also a Cinema with regular shows and a Hero Boulder.

GULANGYU CABLE CAR

Qinyuan Garden can be reached either on foot or by taking a cable car. We chose to take the cable car ride for the amazing and astounding views. As soon as we soared over the island, we didn't realize that it would be a 5-minute heart-stopping thrill ride. We sat in uncomfortable silence, tensed and frozen like a statue afraid that the two-seater, half-enclosed / half-open cable car would sway with our motion. Sometimes, we could even feel it was lightly swaying with the wind.

Even though it was more than a little rickety-terrifying experience for us, we took time to appreciate the surroundings and still managed to take bunch of photos.

The Y60.00 admission fee to Sunlight Rock Scenic Area includes the cable car ride.

Please take note that this ride is certainly not for the faint of heart.

ORIGIN OF THE MOONCAKE GAMBLING CULTURE

Wandering the island, we happened to pass by a sculpture depicting one of the unique celebrating activities of people in Xiamen, called the "Origin of the Mooncake Gambling Culture". The custom of tossing dice to compete for Zhuanyuan dates back to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It started as a game designed by scholars who craved succes in the imperial examinations.

Legend has it that over 300 years ago, during the drills by national hero Zheng Chenggong of his naval forces in Xiamen, Hong Xu, an associate of Zheng Chenggong together with the subordinates of War Ministry, invented the Mid-Autumn Mooncake Gambling Game to relieve the homesickness of the soldiers. After consultation with his officers, he adopted an ingenous combination of dice game rules and mooncakes.

Today, Xiamen is the only place where this culture is preserved in entirety.

MEMORIAL HALL OF ZHENG CHENGGONG

Then we headed to south of the Sunlight Rock, which has a small museum called Memorial Hall of Zheng Chenggong. It was built in honor of the hero's feats, which include expelling the Dutch colonists and re-occupying Taiwan.

The memorial hall consists of seven parts and features historical relics, written materials, photos, sculptures, models, and fine art works showing the life of Zheng Chenggong. Some books and photos, collection of swords, stone inscriptions and bronze cannon are also on display.

Entrance fee was already inluded in the admission to Sunlight Rock Park which was Y60.00 per person (rate as of Dec. 2007).

SUNLIGHT ROCK

We strolled around to view the many delightful sights of Gulangyu Island. We dropped by first at Sunlight Rock Scenic Area. Sunlight Rock also known as Dragon Head Hills or Riguangyan is the highest point with an altitude of 92.7 meters (304 feet), located in the southern part. The garguantan stone thrusting up from the Peak of Riguangyan is looked on as the symbol of Xiamen City.

We had a ten-minute climb to Sunlight Rock on the Longtoushan. Standing on the Peak of Riguangyan, we had a bird's eye view of Xiamen, Gulangyu, Dadan and Xiadan, as well as the panoramic beauty of the sea and mountains and its surroundings.

In this area, there are also gigantic stones, cliffs, and lush green forests with many places of interests.


Among them the most famous are Yipianwa Temple, Lujiang Garden Cave, Ancient Summer Grotto, Longtou Mountain Stronghold, Marine Command Platform and the 10-meter platform.

GULANGYU ISLAND

Once we dabarked from the ferryboat, we continued on into the island. We noticed that there were neither cars nor buses (except for the few electric-powered vehicles), which took us more than three hours to meander. So, there were no evident sources of traffic and pollution in the area. Gulangyu Island was very interesting with narrow and winding streets lined with colonial villas, Western-style mansions, churches, warehouses and government buildings. There were also commercial streets selling traditional local crafts and delicacies.

The are many attractions such as the Sunlight Rock, Memorial Hall of Zheng Chenggong, Underwater World Xiamen, Qinyuan Garden, Gangzihou Bathing Beach, Bronze Sculpture of Cane Shield Army and Gulangyu cable car, which are swarmed with tourist during the daytime. It is said that there are only 20,000 permanent residents of Gulangyu Island. Hence, during nighttime it is totally different from what it is like in daylight.

Gulangyu Island is on China's list of national Scenic Spots and also ranks at the top of the list of the ten most-scenic areas in Fujian Province.