Gulangyu Scenic Area

Gulangyu Island is located in the southwest of Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China. It covers an area of approximately 1.88 square kilometers. The climate is pleasant and the scenery is charming and picturesque. It is known as the "Garden on the Sea". The island is crisscrossed with reefs, has a winding coastline, lush mountains, and undulating peaks and rocks. The beautiful and elegant island scenery of Gulangyu attracts countless tourists to visit and tour. There is a saying that "one must visit Gulangyu Island to truly appreciate the beauty of Xiamen." Gulangyu Island is characterized by its architecture, preserving nearly a thousand buildings of mixed Chinese and Western styles with various styles. It is known as the "Museum of International Architecture". 
In the 1840s, under the impact of the globalizing trend, Gulangyu Island became an important window for cultural exchanges between China and the West. It witnessed the tortuous process of China's modernization during the late Qing Dynasty under the influence of the globalizing trend, and formed an international community with outstanding cultural diversity and modern living standards. The profound accumulation of Minnan culture, combined with the dialogue and exchange of Chinese and Western civilizations since modern times, led to the cultural innovation of Gulangyu Island. This not only created the outstanding qualities of the historical international community but also played a positive role in promoting social changes in Minnan and China as a whole. Gulangyu Island cultivated a large number of outstanding cultural elites from both China and abroad, such as Lu Zhaozhang, the creator of Chinese phonetic characters and punctuation marks, Zhou Shuhang, a pioneer of modern Chinese music, Ma John, a famous sports educator, Lin Junqing, a famous singer and vocal music educator, Li Jialu, a famous pianist, Lin Qiaozhi and He Bihui, famous gynecologists, Yu Qingsong and Lu Jiaxi, famous astronomers, and Lu Jiaxi, a famous scientist... Their achievements in linguistics, literature, education, sports, science, music, etc., spread far beyond Minnan region, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and all over the world. 
Gulangyu Island is one of the first batch of 5A-level tourist attractions in China, a national scenic area, and one of the 35 top-rated scenic spots in the country. It is also the top among the "Top Ten" scenic spots in Fujian Province and is renowned as the "Exhibition Ground of International Architecture", the "Island of Pianos", and the "Island of Music". In 2017, "Gulangyu·Historical International Community" was included in the list of World Cultural Heritage. 

Source：Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism