LegendThe drum in the rock
A hollow rock on the south-west shore booms when the waves hit it, and the island was named Drum Waves after it.
Source: The usual account of the name, given by the island's management and guides
The story
Gulangyu means "drum waves": a hollow rock on the south-west shore booms like a drum when the sea strikes it. For centuries it was a fishing island across a narrow strait from Xiamen. In the 1650s Zheng Chenggong, known in the West as Koxinga, kept his fleet in these waters and, tradition says, drilled his sailors from the top of the island's highest rock.
After the Opium War Xiamen was opened as a treaty port in 1843, and foreigners chose the quiet island to live on. In 1903 it became an international settlement, run by a council of foreign residents and Chinese members. Missionaries built churches, schools and a hospital; Chinese merchants returning rich from Southeast Asia and Taiwan built villas in a mixed style later named Amoy Deco. In 2017 the island was listed as a World Heritage Site.
What is here
The island is free; the ferry costs 35 yuan return. Five sights share a combined ticket of 100 yuan, or can be paid one by one.
| Part | Ticket |
|---|---|
| Sunlight Rock | In the combined ticket |
| Shuzhuang Garden and the Piano Museum | In the combined ticket |
| Haoyue Garden (statue of Koxinga) | In the combined ticket |
| Organ Museum in the Bagua Lou | In the combined ticket |
| Catholic church and the lanes | Free |
If you have one minute
On top of Sunlight Rock
Sunlight Rock is the highest point of the island, a pile of granite boulders about 93 metres above the sea. From the top you see the whole island at once: red roofs among dark green trees, the dome of the Bagua Lou, the garden built out over the water, and across the strait the towers of Xiamen.
The lanes below have almost no cars: since the island was never joined to Xiamen by road, goods still go round on hand carts, pushed up the slopes by porters. Listen for pianos from open windows; in the 1950s the island was said to have over five hundred.
Things people often get wrong
"You need a ticket to land." The island itself is free; what you buy is the ferry ticket, and separate tickets for a few gardens and museums.
"It was a colony." It was never a colony of one country: the settlement was shared by several powers and Chinese residents, and China kept sovereignty. Japan occupied it during the war in the 1940s.
People who stood here
We searched Chinese sources first for this list, then English ones.
- Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga, general, 1624–1662)He made Xiamen and the island his base against the Qing (1644–1912), and from here sailed in 1661 to take Taiwan from the Dutch. A 15-metre statue of him stands on a rock off the east shore.
- Lin Erjia (merchant, 1875–1951)A member of the rich Lin family of Banqiao in Taiwan, he left the island after Japan took Taiwan and in 1913 built Shuzhuang Garden here, said to recall his family's garden across the strait.
- Ma Yuehan (sports educator, 1882–1966)Born on Gulangyu, he taught physical education at Tsinghua for over fifty years and is called the father of modern Chinese sport education.
- Lin Yutang (writer, 1895–1976)The author of "My Country and My People" married Liao Cuifeng in 1919 in her family's house on the island; the house still stands.
- Lin Qiaozhi (doctor, 1901–1983)Born on Gulangyu, she became China's best-known obstetrician and delivered tens of thousands of babies; a garden on the island, Yu Yuan, is her memorial.
2 more people
- Yin Chengzong (pianist, born 1941)Born on the island, he took second prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962 and later led the writing of the "Yellow River" piano concerto.
- Shu Ting (poet, born 1952)One of the "Misty" poets of the late 1970s, she wrote "To the Oak Tree" and has lived on Gulangyu for most of her life.
Go deeper: a walk round the island in six stops7 stops · about 1 min to read
A walk of three to four hours, from the daytime pier at Sanqiutian round to Neicuo'ao; the island is only about two kilometres across.
1. Sanqiutian and the old consulates
The ferry lands on the north-east shore, where the British, American, Japanese and other consulates stood on the slopes facing Xiamen. Several of these buildings survive, some as small museums.
2. The Bagua Lou and the organ museum
The red dome seen from everywhere crowns the Bagua Lou, a mansion begun in 1907 for a Taiwanese merchant, Lin Heshou, with columns on all sides and an octagonal roof. Today it holds the Gulangyu Organ Museum, with church and harmonium organs from Europe and America.
3. Sunlight Rock
A stepped path climbs between boulders carved with poems and inscriptions to the platform at the top. On the way are the remains of the stone gate of Koxinga's camp and a memorial hall to him.
4. Shuzhuang Garden and the piano museum
Lin Erjia's garden is built on the shore, so the sea becomes part of the view. A zigzag bridge of forty-four turns runs over the water, and a rock garden with twelve grottoes climbs the hill. In the garden, the Piano Museum shows nearly a hundred old pianos given by Hu Youyi, a collector born on the island.
5. Haoyue Garden and the statue of Koxinga
On the east shore, a granite statue of Koxinga set up in 1985 stands on a rock above the waves, looking out towards Taiwan.
6. Lanes, villas and the Catholic church
Walk back through the lanes behind Longtou Road. The small white Gothic Catholic church dates from 1917; around it are villas with verandas, Chinese roofs on Western columns and gardens behind high walls.
The island and the same years elsewhere
The settlement began in 1903; that December, on a beach in North Carolina, the Wright brothers made the first powered flight.