Another taste of Xiamen summer

[AIRwin]

Statue of Tan Kah Kee in the museum:

 

[AIRwin]

Tan Kah Kee memorial garden:

 

[AIRwin]

View of the causeway (and MTR line) between Jimei and Xiamen:

 

[AIRwin]

Lunch of Xiamen local shacha (satay?) noodles at one of the restaurants within Jimei School Village:

 

[AIRwin]

The next day, I planned to take the ferry from Xiamen to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage listed Gulangyu island.

Before I arrived in Xiamen, I've already heard that the convenient Lundu Ferry Terminal (near the Zhongshan Road pedestrian mall and across the street from where the airport shuttle minibus drop off) is restricted only to local residents after 7 am during the day to alleviate congestion. Instead, visitors will need to take the ferry either from Diyi Ferry Terminal (1 km away) or Xiagu Ferry Terminal (4 km away).

@NSun - Which ferry terminal did you try?

Plan A:
Initially I thought of waking up at 6 am so I can still take a short walk from the hostel to the more convenient Lundu Ferry Terminal but then it was too early resulting in too long a day.

Plan B:
Walk directly from the hostel to Diyi Ferry Terminal.
But the ferry from there goes around to the further side of Gulangyu island (RMB 80 instead of RMB 35) and when I got to Diyi Ferry Terminal around 8 am, all tickets for the hourly ferries were already sold out until 11:45 am.

Plan C:
Walked 1 km back to Lundu Ferry Terminal as I read that there was a free shuttle bus (in peak hour traffic) from there to Xiagu Ferry Terminal where there may be more frequent ferries.

 

[AIRwin]

Back at Lundu Ferry Terminal, a girl (working for the ferry?) standing outside the ticket office approached me. I asked her about the free shuttle bus to Xiagu Ferry Terminal. To my surprise, she said I may be eligible to take the ferry from Lundu Ferry Terminal itself even though I'm not a local resident. After presenting my passport, she directed me to the ticket counter where they registered my details and issued me with a return ferry ticket for RMB 35!

Plan D:
Off I go boarding the 8:40 am ferry!

 

[AIRwin]

Arrived at Gangqin (Piano) Ferry Terminal at Gulangyu after 5 minutes:

 

[AIRwin]

Gulangyu island (nicknamed Piano island) is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It is a historical international settlement with repurposed old foreign consulates and colonial mansions, churches, museums, cobbled alleyways, gardens, walking trails, beaches, etc. No cars and bicycles on the island!

 

[AIRwin]

 

[AIRwin]

View from Gulangyu back towards Xiamen:

 

[AIRwin]

Haoyue Garden:

 

[AIRwin]

Piano Museum (note the sweeping views from the windows):

 

[AIRwin]

View of the Sunlight rock and from on top itself:

 

[AIRwin]

Organ Museum:

 

[AIRwin]

Churches on Gulangyu island:

 

[AIRwin]

Old mansions and villas on Gulangyu island:

 

[AIRwin]

Gulang rock at the southwestern beach on Gulangyu island:


There were signs with no swimming on all the beaches otherwise I would have loved to enter the water to cool down from all the walking around the island...

 

[AIRwin]

Return ferry from Gulangyu island at sunset:

 

[AIRwin]

Leaving XMN, there was a 30% off KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes deal for 11550 miles when I was planning my trip a few weeks before travel. So I transferred some Velocity points to top up my account.

In fact SQ had only recently opened all flights for reservation so it was timely for me:

Singapore Airlines Extends Chengdu / Xiamen Service to late-Oct 2024 — AeroRoutes

Published at 1100GMT 11JUL24 Singapore Airlines in recent weeks opened reservations for Chengdu and Xiamen, for travel between 01AUG24 and 26OCT24. Previously reported on AeroRoutes on 20MAY24, the airline previously opened reservations for both destinations for travel until 31JUL24. Singapore

www.aeroroutes.com

 

[AIRwin]

After checking out of the hostel, I walked to the airport shuttle pick up across the street from the Xiamen Ferry Terminal near Zhongshan Road pedestrian mall.

I didn't have contactless payment to purchase a ticket from the QR code so had to wait for either the ticket office to open or the shuttle itself. There was one scheduled at 10:05 am but luckily I hadn't paid for a ticket yet as I was closely watching and it never showed up at all (otherwise they would have sold tickets for a cancelled service just like QF?)

Standing in the shade outside the ticket office, finally someone came around 10:15 am and unlocked the door. I bought a ticket (RMB 15) from him for the next shuttle at 10:45 am and it showed up not long later at 10:40 am.