Street Ukeleles (You ke li li jietou yiren 尤克里里街头艺人)
These two licensed street artists provide some of the street-music atmosphere for which Kulangsu Island was once famous. Two colorful men hang out near the Marine Garden Hotel, on opposite sides of the dramatic typhoon-struck tree, playing and selling cheap ukeleles. Music includes a variety of Chinese folk songs, plus frequent renditions of “Gulangyu Zhi […]
Wedding beach (Guan Hai Yuan Hai Tan 观海园海滩）
When you’re on the most romantic island in China, some spots can be overwhelmed with romance. This small, pretty beach at the end of Tianwei Road is a classic perch on the Kulangsu coast, in part because of the incredible number of couples posing for wedding pictures on the beach every day. On an average […]
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 […]
Pianist Yin Chengzong’s house (Yin Cheng Zong Zhai 殷承宗宅)
Kulangsu’s most famous pianist, Yin Chengzong, still owns and periodically visits this hilltop house. It is one of the island’s most beautiful private homes, now inhabited by the pianist’s brother, Yin Chengdian, who is a first-rate musician in his own right and the former dean of the Xiamen Music School. In 1924, Yin’s father bought the […]
Gulangyu Piano Museum (Gulangyu Gang Qin Bo Wu Guan 鼓浪屿钢琴博物馆)
One of the top tourist attractions of Kulangsu Island is the world’s largest and most impressive collection of pianos, all of which reside in a sprawling series of red-roofed houses that pay heritage to the island’s European-Chinese fusion classical music tradition. When you think about the difficulty of transporting so many grand pianos from all […]