Yesterday was spent exploring the small island of Gulangyu, which lies just of Xiamen. We took the ferry around the island first, before landing and strolling around the Gulangyu’s compact streets. Turns out I was wrong about the lack of a colonial past in Xiamen. In fact, Gulangyu was apparently a British concession until after WW2, which is evident from the architecture and some of the other sights to be found on the island. These included an excellent aquarium, peaceful ornamental gardens, and a quaint piano museum (which reminds me that I have yet to do the new Brentford musical museum!). Being a Sunday, the place was rather full of visitors from the mainland, but still a very pleasant day’s sightseeing.
This morning we visited Xiamen University, which to some extent was the reason why we were in this part of China at all – Jason had an interview at the university’s economics faculty for a possible professorship there. I spent the morning wandering around the modern university campus, which seemed to be virtually deserted. Either it is vacation time or all the students were ensconced in their lecture halls (unlike students at some UK universities I could name).
Next and final destination on this trip is Shanghai.
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