Kulangsu Organ Museum (Eight Diagrams Mansion / Bagua Mansion) (Ba Gua Lou 八卦楼)

Kulangsu Organ Museum (Eight Diagrams Mansion / Bagua Mansion) (Ba Gua Lou 八卦楼)

The Kulangsu organ museum’s beautiful red dome is visible from across the bay in Xiamen. The museum, housed in the old Bagua Mansion, is one of Kulangsu’s most important tourist attractions–both for its impressive collection of organs and for its stately and imposing architectural style.

The Bagua Mansion, also known as Eight Diagrams Mansion, is a good representation of early  Xiamen architecture. It was constructed by Taiwan businessman Lin Heshou and designed by Dutch American John Abraham Otte, director of Hope Hospital, in 1907. Lin Heshou aspired to build a villa blending classical eastern and western architectural styles, but the project was so costly that Lin Heshou had to mortgage his properties to get a loan from the Japanese-owned “Bank of Taiwan”.

Lin Heshou eventually went bankrupt and, leaving the project unfinished, hightailed it back to Taiwan, never to return. Afterwards the Japanese repaired the house and set up the “Xuying Study”. During the war with Japan, Bagua Mansion was a refugee asylum. After the war, it was taken over by the Kuomintang government.

Address: 43 Guxin  Road, Gulangyu Island, Siming District, Xiamen City, China

八卦楼是现代厦门建筑典型的代表。在1907年,由救世医院的创办人,荷兰籍美国人郁约翰设计,然后由台湾商人林鹤寿投资建造起来的。林鹤寿渴望建造一栋结合中西建筑风格的公馆。而后,林鹤寿破产导致未修建完成的公馆被日本人收走改建成“旭瀛书院”。在中日战争结束后,八卦楼被国民党政府收走。近几年来八卦楼是管风琴博物馆,非常受游客喜爱。

地址:厦门市思明区鼓浪屿鼓新路43号