Gulangyu Island

Gulangyu.
It is no secret that this city is one of my favorite destination I have been to so far. According to China Daily, Gulangyu is the 2nd most visited tourist attraction after National Museum of Beijing.
Main reason I love the island?
No cars.
No buses.
No bikes.

One of my favorite houses in the whole island.

I mean, sure the island police have a little electric golf cart and as does a couple of the expensive, luxury hotels that reside in the island.

For packages and delivery, there are men who walk with a large wooden cart like some sort of ox plowing through a field, except its not a field but a pavement and its an uphill.

The people are welcoming, nosy and curious yet very laid back. Its a slow pace of life here with a population a little over 200,000 people. And almost everyone and their uncle is some sort of fisherman, or businessman. People's home's are open and sell just about any trinket you could think of.

Especially ice cold water and popsicles. With summer weather reaching nearly 100 degrees, people, especially tourist with big fat wallets are bound to need a little refresher from the humid heat.
I found that if you purchase water directly from these people, water comes out cheaper as opposed to if you were to buy it in a regular store.
80% to 85% of all the restaurants and stores are seafood based and boy is it fresh. So fresh its still living and breathing and you get to pick what you want to eat.

I am not a big seafood person at all. In fact, I absolutely hate the taste of anything seafood. While some of the foods I saw (and smelled) looked good, I did not risk my one chance of eating seafood and ate mostly chicken pork which is surprisingly enough cheaper than the seafood. I even made friends with the owners of two places I went to have my meals.

I spent the total of 5 days 4 nights living in this island and it was blissful.
Everyday it was sunny and hot and humid with a cacophony of cicadas everywhere you walked around. My first day I got sunburnt (yeah I forgot my sunscreen again) so I forced myself to buy an umbrella like most tourist and locals did. The island is so lush and green and I can only image its what Hawaii looks like. Around the island, miniature shrines are strategically placed there by the locals and it made me wonder why they were placed everywhere. And they were not in obvious places but off in a corner in rocks on edges of buildings. Most were deteriorating with wear and tear from the sun.

The beaches while very beautiful to admire from a distance, where unsafe to personally swim in the water. The city has people specifically for the purpose of cleaning up debris and trash that washes up on shore. From what I saw, it's an every day thing.
Very sad.
So.
Good food. Great people. Beautiful scenery. Dirty beaches. Mosquitos, gnats, cicadas. Fun adventure. Fresh live pearls open and cracked in front of your eyes.
The overall experience in this place is one of the best. There were times where the heat was unbearable for me since my skin glistened like freshly waxed car and I would just sit with my little umbrella in many of the corners of the island and watch the boats that passed by.

That was my zen moment. I found it here while NOT following the map that was handed to me on my last day at the island.
And Gulangyu Island is a place I plan on staying again before I leave China.
Until next time!

Zai Jian!

These drinks were made naturally from a flower!
I saw the full process and the man spoke English so he explained to me the flower's name: Asian Pidgeonwings
(also known as Bluebellevine or Butterfly Pea)