Day trip to Gulangyu Island (鼓浪屿) from Xiamen

Gulangyu is one of the main (and few) tourist attractions of Xiamen. I knew I wanted to visit at some point during my business trip. I didn’t want to get up too early on my day off, so made a kind of late start to my day trip. I didn’t arrive at the port until 12:30pm or so.

I didn’t realize the port was like an airport, with two levels for departures vs. arrivals. This is also the cruise ship terminal, so I guess that’s why it’s so big.

The entrance to the area for the Gulangyu Ferry was well marked.

I wasn’t able to purchase tickets in advance, because I had a foreign passport rather than Chinese ID, so I needed to queue to buy the next available ticket. The concierge in the Shangri-La told me that there were two terminals on Gulangyu, Sanqiutian (三丘田码头) and Neicuo’ao (内厝澳码头), and I should choose the Sanqiutian terminal because it’s closer to most of the tourist sites. Well, the next available ferry was to Neicuo’ao leaving at 1:10pm, which was a long enough wait, so I just bought that ticket. I didn’t want to delay any longer.

That turned out to be a fine choice, because the island is pretty small at 2 sq. km. (0.77 sq. mi.). And anyway departing from Gulangyu at night, the only option is to leave from Sanqiutian terminal, so there wouldn’t be any backtracking this way.

Boarding the ferry was a true cattle call.

Here we are getting on the boat.

I do wonder about the tickets with the reserved time. We actually left around 1pm, rather than 1:10pm, and there were people left on the dock as we left. It makes me think that they run ferries continuously, and the time on the ticket is just to space people out.

Along the way, there were the most sleek looking birds, I think diving for fish that came up in our wake.

Sometimes their whole head was black, but sometimes it was just the eye area.

You can see them so playful here!

In the background you can see the cruise ship terminal where we left from, with two big bona fide cruise ships.

And then almost half an hour later, we arrived. You can see it’s quite a tourist destination, with some group tours going on!

Here’s a picture of a map. Neicuo’ao terminal is on the west side, and my first destination was Riguangyan (日光岩 or “Sunlight Rock”)…

…so I walked along this beach area on the western shore.

Riguangyan is a place with nice views of the surrounding area.

Look at all of the dragonflies hovering in the air!

Here’s a view to the east, towards Xiamen city.

And a view west.

Another view towards Xiamen, with another dragonfly caught in the sky.

Just south of Riguangyan was the Shuzhuang Garden (菽庄花园). This was built in 1913 by a Lin Erjia, who grew up in Taiwan, but moved to the island during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. He created this a villa here that replicated the family’s villa in Taiwan, but added in this garden feature.

There was a zig zag path over water…

…but the more interesting part for me was this rock feature, “Twelve Cave Paradise.” From this side, it appears like a cliff.

But from here, you can see it’s like a maze!

I really did kind of get lost in these pathways, some of which were had very low head clearance.

After the gardens, I made my way towards Haoyue Park (皓月园), which is where the statue of Zheng Chenggong 郑成功 was.

To get there, I walked by some cool buildings and landscapes, like this huge tree. Kind of reminded me of Savannah, Georgia.

There were a lot of well-preserved buildings made in a Western style. Xiamen was a treaty port following the Opium War in the 1800s, and in 1903, Gulangyu was designated as an International Settlement, like Shanghai.

Here’s the interior of this building above, the Lee Manor Hotel.

There were also some cool art deco stone carvings.

Eventually I did make it to Haoyue Park, at the southeastern tip of the island.

Here is the statue of Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662), a figure who, among other things, expelled the Dutch colonizers from Taiwan.

(Some interesting-looking flowers!)

I really felt like I wasn’t in China in some of the areas…

After the park, I went inland towards the more commercial area of the island.

This was the Union Church (#12 on the above map). Clearly a popular destination for wedding photographs! How will they all get their shot, without someone else in the frame?

This area is where all of the restaurants are.

I went to have dinner at this place called Lim Suhi (林四喜).

It had a cute interior.

I think I might have ordered wrong, but the food was just okay. This was the Southern Min vinegared pork (闽南醋肉), which kind of just tasted like fried pork. The sauce was kind of watery, as I recall. (38 RMB)

I also ordered the Gulangyu Lim family pancakes (鼓浪屿林家博饼). I thought these would be special, because they called them “Gulangyu” and the “Lim family” pancakes, but it was basically street food, presented nicely.

This was a mixture of cabbage, carrots, and other vegetables with some pork and oysters. A bit bland on its own.

The toppings included laver seaweed, cilantro, pork floss 肉松, and ground peanut.

Sauces included a kind of horseradish-y one on the left, and a sweetish one on the right.

The wrappers were green and white.

I basically had these in a friend’s house last year; these were about the same! They’re also sold on the street in Xiamen, but this nicely presented version cost 68 RMB (about US$10).

After dinner, I saw this place had a lot of customers. And I love all of this grass jelly stuff that I came across in Xiamen too.

Here, you basically choose either grass jelly or a clear agar agar base.

The toppings were more or less the same between the two.

I got the black grass jelly! Toppings included sweet potato mochi (the orange squares), dates, raisins, peanuts (here peanuts are not cooked like in Taiwan, but rather crunchy).

Also beans…

You could add on additional black sugar if you wanted.

And also refill with more of the grass jelly liquid. I took advantage - nice for this hot day!

Finally, it was getting late, so I made my way to the Sanqiutian terminal.

More stately buildings…

…eventually it got rather dark.

I’m glad I came across this site, listed in Dazhong Dianping 大众点评 as “最美转角,” or, “the most beautiful corner.” Obviously a popular location for picture-taking.

After that, I went to the ferry terminal. Here you just use your ticket purchased on the Xiamen side, and board the next ferry that’s departing.

The ferry back to Xiamen after 6:50pm doesn’t go back to the cruise ship terminal, but rather directly across the water to Lundu terminal (厦门轮渡码头) . Not only does this trip take only 5-10 minutes, but the terminal deposits you right next to the pedestrian Zhongshan Road (中山街), which is perfect to continue sightseeing.

Nighttime views from the water: