Why is Gulangyu so artistic? What is the historical background?

Gulangyu Island was developed at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. Its original name was "Yuanshazhou" and "Yuanzhouzai". In the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed "Gulangyu Island". Zheng Chenggong once used this as a military stronghold to station troops for training and fight against Qing troops. At present, there are still the former sites of Shuicaotai and Shizhaimen built at that time on Sunlight Rock. During the Opium War, the British army occupied Gulangyu Island until their withdrawal in 1845. After 1843, Xiamen was opened as a treaty port in accordance with the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing. After the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, Japan occupied Taiwan. In order to prevent Japan from further coveting Xiamen, the Qing government decided to ask the great powers to "protect Xiamen simultaneously." On January 10, 1902 (the first day of December in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), the consuls of 9 countries in Xiamen, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Swiss-Norwegian Alliance, and Japan, contacted Xingquan, Fujian Province of the Qing Dynasty. Yongdaotai Yannian signed the "Xiamen Gulangyu Public Land Boundary Charter" at the Japanese Consulate on Gulangyu Island, and Gulangyu became a public concession. In January of the following year, the Gulangyu Public Concession Industry Bureau was established. Before and after, 13 countries including Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Japan successively established consulates on the island.

During this period, many missionaries came to Gulangyu, and the schools they established had a significant impact on modern education in China. For example: In 1898, the British pastor Wei Yuzhen and his wife Wei Aili founded the "Huai School" when they went to Gulangyu to preach. "De Kindergarten" is the first kindergarten in China (now renamed as Sunlight Kindergarten)

In October 1949, the People's Liberation Army occupied Gulangyu Island.

A small number of private residences are commercial hotels and are not open to tourists

Lin's Mansion (Bajiaolou): located at No. 11-19 Lujiao Road. The original owner was Lin Erjia of the Lin family in Banqiao. The annex building of Lin's Mansion collapsed in May 2006.

The British Consulate is located at 14 Lujiao Road.

Japanese Consulate: located at No. 26 Lujiao Road.

Catholic Church: Located at No. 34 Lujiao Road, it was built in 1916. It is a Gothic building.

U.S. Consulate: located at No. 26 Sanming Road. It is now a hotel.

Fanpo Building: Located at No. 36 Anhai Road, it was built in 1927. The original owner was Xu Jingquan, an overseas Chinese living in the Philippines.

Yangjiayuan: No. 4 across Anhai Road to No. 27-29 Guxin Road. Built in 1913.

Bagua Tower: located at No. 43 Guxin Road. Built in 1907. It is the landmark building of Gulangyu Island. The original owner was Lin Erjia's cousin Lin Heshou. It is now the Xiamen Municipal Museum and Pipe Organ Museum.

Chip Building: Located at No. 48 Guxin Road. The original owner was Dr. Huang Dapi.

HSBC Bank Manager’s Residence: located at No. 57 Guxin Road. Built in 1876.

Linwu: Located at No. 82 Quanzhou Road. The original owner Lin Zhenxun.

Jingua Tower: located at No. 99 Quanzhou Road. The original owner is Huang Cimin, an overseas Chinese from the Philippines.

Sea View Villa: located at No. 17 Tianwei Road. Built in 1918. It was originally the apartment of the manager of the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company.

Trinity Hall: Located at the entrance of Bishan Cave. Built in 1934.

Yiyuan: located at No. 24 Fujian Road. The original owner was the poet Lin Henian.

Huang Rongyuan Hall: located at No. 32 Fujian Road. The original owners were Filipino overseas Chinese Shi Guang and Huang Zhongxun. Built in 1920. It is now Xiamen Performing Arts Vocational College.

Haitang Restaurant: Located at No. 42, Fujian Road. Built in the 1920s. The original owners were Filipino overseas Chinese Huang Xiuxang and his fellow countryman Huang Nianyi.

Bai Family Villa: Located on Fuxing Road, the original owner is Bai Dengbi.

Liao Family Villa: Located at No. 44, Zhangzhou Road, the original owner is Liao Cuifeng. In August 1919, Lin Yutang married Liao Cuifeng, the daughter of the owner of the building, here.

Kanqing Villa: located at No. 71 Yongchun Road. Built in 1918. The original owner Huang Zhongxun. In 1949, Guanqing Villa was renovated as Chiang Kai-shek's "travel center". Later, due to the rapid change of the situation, Chiang Kai-shek only stayed here for one night on July 23. In 1962, Guo Moruo wrote the script of "Zheng Chenggong" here. This building is now the library and reference room of Zheng Chenggong Memorial Hall.

Xilin Villa: Located at No. 73 Yongchun Road, it was built in 1926. It is now the Zheng Chenggong Memorial Hall.

Pu'an: Located at No. 16 Jishan Road, the original owner was the pianist Yin Chengzong.

Rong (Rong) Valley: Located at No. 7 Qishan Road, the original owner is Li Qingquan.

Huang Family Garden: Located at No. 25 Huangyan Road, it was built between 1918 and 1923. The original owner, the overseas Chinese businessman and "Indonesian Sugar King" Huang also lived here. In the 1950s, this was the "State Guesthouse" of the Xiamen government, hosting national dignitaries such as Deng Xiaoping, Richard Nixon, and Lee Kuan Yew.

Gongshen Hall: No. 1-3 Bishan Road,

Lin Wenqing Villa: No. 5 Bishan Road. The original owner is Singaporean overseas Chinese Lim Boon Keng.

Guancai Tower: located at No. 6 Bishan Road,

Yizu Villa: located at No. 9 Bishan Road, built in the 1920s by the original owner Xu Jian, a Vietnamese overseas Chinese.

Chuncao Hall: Located at No. 17 Bishan Road, the original owner is Xu Chuncao, president of the Xiamen Construction Association.

Related celebrities

Lu Xunzhang: After failing the imperial examination at the age of 18, he moved from Tongan to Gulangyu Island and lived on Gulangyu Island his whole life. He died of illness on December 28, 1928 and was buried in Jishan, Gulangyu Island. There is now a statue of Lu Cunzhang on Gulangyu Island. From the bronze statue to his cemetery, there is a 500-meter-long stone path engraved with punctuation marks and Chinese pinyin to commemorate his contribution to the Chinese language.

Ma John: Born in Gulangyu in 1882. Now there is Ma John Square built on Gulangyu Island.

Lin Qiaozhi: Born in Gulangyu in 1901, she applied to Peking Union Medical College Hospital after graduating from Gulangyu Women’s Normal School. Now there is a Yuyuan Garden built in Gulangyu Island to commemorate her.

Cai Qijiao: In 1928, when he was only 11 years old, he returned to China from Indonesia where he was an expatriate and studied at Gulangyu Fumin Primary School (now Bishan Primary School). In 1954, he held a literature lecture in Trinity Hall on Gulangyu Island. Later, he discovered and recommended Shu Ting to become famous in the literary world. She wrote a poem "Gulangyu Island" (1956) that has been widely circulated, especially the sentence "Gulangyu Island on the water, a colorful building boat."

Shu Ting: There is an ancestral house on Gulangyu Island. Having lived in Gulangyu for most of his life, a reader once wrote to Shu Ting and said: "It is the flowers in Gulangyu that cultivate an exquisite and clear heart."

Chen Zuohuang: conductor. When he was young, he moved with his parents from Shanghai to Gulangyu Island, where he embarked on the road of music.

Lian Yue: After resigning from public office, he moved to Gulangyu Island.