I have already taken you to many large modern cities in China, and I have absolutely no doubt that you’ve seen the prosperity and enthusiam of these large cities. Instead of showing you another one of these, I’m going to take you to a small island at Xiamen (Amoy) named Kulangsu. First of all, let me tell you a little bit about Xiamen. Xiamen is a central city in the Fujian province at southwestern China, and it’s an international tourist seaport famous for its important status in cross-strait finance and Southeast international trade. It’s the closest city to Taiwan, and you can see the Kinmen city of Taiwan right across from Xiamen. The map below could clearly show the exact location of Xiamen.

Xiamen

Xiamen is definitely a huge modern city, but today the island that I’m taking you to is not as much impacted by the outside world. It alone stands out as an unique “secluded” place in the middle of this crowded world.

I’ve gone to Kulangsu three times, and during the first two times that I went, I had never thought that I would one day wanted to go for the third time. During the first two times, I went with my parents as a child, and it felt quite boring just because that I didn’t feel like there was anything in particular that interested me. But the truth is–I was too young to find the beauty of Kulangsu, and I didn’t really spend time delving into its meandering alleys.

Kulangsu has been praised by the United States former president Richard Nixon to be the Eastern Hawaii. It has well preserved buildings with the Chinese and foreign combined features, and therefore it’s given the name “the Universal Expo of Architectures”. This is also the fertile ground for music, and it has the nicknames of “the hometown of music” and “the island of piano”. There is indeed a Kulangsu Piano Museum on the island, and there displayed antiquated pianos that were used by the famous.

If you are a fan of photography, you should definitely come to this island. Years ago, this island was not as famous as it is today. It’s becoming more and more popular because many great photographers came here and took many cool shots that caught the tourists’ eyes.

There are many shops on this island, but each one of them takes long time to find. They seem to always hide in the corners, and you could easily miss them. These shops are usually not clothing shops, and they each have something unique to talk about.

This is tea shop famous for its unique designs of the caddies and the interior arrangement.

The shop mainly is designed in British style, and the bold contrasting colors it uses create a strong visual impact for the customers.

Chen’s Tea Shop is one unique store out of hundreds on the island, and if you are interested, I would recommend you to spend some time to find out more about them!