Day 67 - Exploring Gulang Yu

Today we spent the day exploring the island we currently call home (for 2 days, anyway). Gulang yu is a small island off the coast of Xiamen, in Fujian province. It has been inhabited by British and Japanese, among others, over the years - this is why it has a colonial feel, with maze-like alleys creeping around the island past old villas and churches (some now merely remains).

We also came across something we've seen all over China: makeshift barbedwire - OUCH! At times this makes us laugh as it is sometimes surrounding peaceful places such as temples and churches!
Gulang Yu has a history of music, and we were treated to delicate piano playing as we walked the streets - even the stone speakers hidden in the grass played piano tunes.

Our first stop of the day (after we had walked a third of the way around the island lost) was the Organ Museum - while this is not something we would usually choose to pay to see, it was included in the sight-seeing ticket we bought, and it was airconditioned, which was a welcome retreat from the heat. Here we got to see a collection of antique organs in all shapes and sizes, including one that would take up half a house!

Next we headed to Sunlight Rock - the highest point on the island at only 93m! From the top we got great views over the island and ocean, and if we weren't engulfed in the constant haze, we would have been able to see Jinmen Island (claimed by China and Taiwan, but occupied by the latter).
Ambling down the rock, we stopped in at the 'swimming beach', but despite the heat we were not enticed to take a dip amongst the floating debris. Instead we headed to Shuzhuang Gardens, which started off with a zig-zag walkway built over the ocean and around the coast. Finding ourselves following one of the many paths, we were soon out of the garden before ever really entering - almost meaning we were prevented from going in again through one of the many entrances! In the gardens we found a cool rock park, a LOT of pavillions, and a piano museum, but were disappointed as we couldn't find the highlight of the gardens: a bonsai garden.
In need of a rest we returned to the hostel navigating through the alleyways awash with people trying to sell us dried seafood, and past restaurants with very sad looking fish and exotic seafood barely alive and crammed into small plastic washtubs - in order to provide patrons with 'fresh' seafood.

Ready to face the world again, we made it to Haoyue Garden - our last destination for the day, finding the island semi-deserted as most tourists had returned for the mainland. The Haoyue Garden houses the enormous 16m high and 1,400 tonne statue of Koxinga (a famous military figure) overlooking the ocean to Taiwan. Later on, we braved the rain in our search of food, and once again came home less than satisfied after greasy and tasteless (and overpriced) dishes. Our only saviours were delicious roti-like bread from a street vendor and McDonalds chocolate sundaes that melted as fast as we could eat them on the way home.

Adlibing the alleyways around a hot Gulang Yu.