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Xiamen

One of the shopping streets on Gulangyu Island. Its really just an island full of shops, hotels and tourists, but it was interesting to visit nonetheless. I wasn't interested in the souvenir shops and was much more keen on learning about the history of the island.

CHINA | Saturday, 8 November 2008 | Views [616]

One of the shopping streets on Gulangyu Island. Its really just an island full of shops, hotels and tourists, but it was interesting to visit nonetheless. I wasn't interested in the souvenir shops and was much more keen on learning about the history of the island.

We spent the day (and night) on Gulangyu Island, which is a small (one squared km) tourist island just off the coast of Xiamen Island.

The island became a foreign enclave in 1842 after the signing of The Treaty of Nanking (which marked the end of the first Opium War between Britain and China) and remained so until 1949 when the Chinese Communist party took power. The island was abandoned and thus left to it's original inhabitants, buildings intact. Most of the buildings are in a state of disrepair, but some are in the process of being restored.

Its home to a lot of very unique architecture (a mixture of Victorian and Qing Dynasty Chinese) and welcomes many thousands of tourists every year.

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A legless busker on Gulangyu Island playing a Chinese four string lute called a 'pipa'.

His playing wasn't great, but I think he deserves every mao he gets for sitting out there all day!

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