Gulangyu Island (Piano Island!!)

Shuzhuang Garden (Mummy, me and my aunty)
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Sharp at 9.30 am, my uncle and cousin sister brought us to one of the most scenic spots in Xiamen, Gulangyu Island. To get there, we had to cross over the Straits of Xiamen, which was about 700 meters-long by taking either steamship (RMB 7/person) or boat (RMB 10/person). Between these two, we chose to go by steamship and it only took us about 5 minutes.

Once arrived at the island, we saw quite a number of local tour guides there, busying in waving their small colorful flags while offering some day-tour packages to the tourists. To learn more about the island, we did get a tour guide (Xiao Yu) by paying RMB 50. As told by Xiao Yu, the name of Gulangyu Island was actually derived from the ‘guu..lung…guu..lung…’ sound generated by the ocean waves as they drummed repeatedly against the holes of large reefs. In fact, ‘Gulangyu’ was translated from three Chinese words, which meant ‘drum waves islet’. Besides, this island was also well known as ‘Piano Island’ or ‘Island of Music’ because residents here had boundless enthusiasms for piano and about 80% of them owned a piano at home. Thus, don’t be surprised when you get to hear some nice classical music playing around from time to time while walking along the alleys and passing by some housing areas there!

Seaside of Gulangyu Island!! (Me and Xiao Xin)
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After walking for about 15 minutes, we came to one of the ‘cannot be missed’ attractions at Gulangyu Island, Shuzhuang Garden. Here, it boasted the sole domestic and the first-class piano museum of the world!! I was particularly interested in this, as I loved playing piano since young but only came across upright piano, grand piano and electone so far and never thought that there were many more…Divided into two exhibition halls, the museum displayed 96 types of pianos in total, together with some illustrations explaining briefly about their history. Out of these 96 types, those that really amazed me were the round-shaped piano, four-legs piano, L-shaped piano, automatic piano, accordion piano, miniature piano, and the piano with 52 black keys and 36 white keys instead of the normal type with 52 white keys and 36 black keys!! Other than being an instrument, Xiao Yu told us that piano was also treated as a piece of furniture long time ago (eg. square-shaped piano could be used as a desk when its cover was closed). I was truly inspired by such a great variety of pianos, but it was forbidden to take photos of any of them...

Bird's eye of Xiamen City!
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Following this, we made an ascent to the highest point found on Gulangyu Island, Sunshine Rock (or Riguang Rock). Although Sunshine Rock was only 92.7m high, it looked grand and awesome from afar. Standing on top of this huge rock, we had a panoramic view of the island. Since westerners used to take up residence in Gulangyu Island during Xiamen’s colonial past, this explained why there were so many architectures of European styles being blended into this island. Apart from that, we also got a bird’s eye view of Xiamen city, which was just situated opposite to us. Looking at the many tall buildings and mansions being built on Xiamen city, it appeared as if it was another Singapore! At the foot of Sunlight Rock, there was a huge sculpture of Zheng Chenggong, which was made to commemorate his heroic effort in re-occupying Taiwan.

also known as Piano Island
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All in all, Gulangyu Island was a place with nice, relaxing and placid atmosphere;)