Kulangsu, Xiamen’s Car-Free Island, Becomes a World Heritage Site
UNESCO inscribed Kulangsu on 8 July 2017. The small island off Xiamen, once an international settlement, keeps its villas, churches and a tradition of piano music.
Kulangsu was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 8 July 2017 under the title “Kulangsu, a Historic International Settlement”. The island, known in Mandarin as Gulangyu, lies a few hundred metres off the city of Xiamen, on the coast of Fujian. It measures less than two square kilometres, has no cars and no bicycles, and holds one of the most complete historic townscapes on the Chinese coast.
An international settlement
Xiamen, then known abroad as Amoy, was opened to foreign trade in 1843. Consulates, trading firms and missions settled on Kulangsu, and in 1903 the island formally became an international settlement, governed by a municipal council on which foreign and Chinese residents sat. Thirteen countries had consular or other privileges there. Apart from Shanghai, it was the only settlement of its kind in China.
What made Kulangsu different was the role of returning overseas Chinese. From the early 20th century, families from southern Fujian who had made fortunes in Southeast Asia came back and built houses on the island. They mixed what they had seen in Singapore, Manila and Java with local traditions and with the Art Deco of the 1920s and 1930s. The result is a style now called Amoy Deco, and it is the main reason for the inscription: UNESCO recognised the island as a product of exchange in several directions, more than as a colonial enclave.
What to see
The property includes more than 900 historic buildings, along with gardens and a network of lanes. The best known are the former British and Japanese consulates, the Catholic church of 1917, the Hai Tian Tang Gou mansion with its Chinese roof on a Western body, and the Bagua Mansion of 1907, whose red dome is the island’s landmark and which now houses an organ museum. Shuzhuang Garden, built on the shore by a merchant from Taiwan, contains a piano museum. Sunlight Rock, the highest point, gives a view over the roofs to Xiamen’s towers.
The pianos are a legacy of the missions. Churches and schools taught Western music from the 19th century, and the island produced a striking number of China’s concert pianists. It is still called Piano Island, and music can be heard from open windows in the back lanes.
Visiting
The island receives more than ten million visitors a year, and daily numbers are capped. Tourists take the ferry from the Dongdu terminal in Xiamen, about 20 minutes, with tickets booked ahead under passport name; the short crossing from the old ferry pier is reserved for residents during the day. Day trippers leave in the late afternoon, and the island is at its best after that. A night in one of the villa guesthouses is the way to see it.
Fujian now has a second World Heritage port city close by: Quanzhou, inscribed in 2021, is under an hour from Xiamen by train.