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Standing among blue waves of the East Sea, Xiamen deserves its title of "Garden on the Sea". The perpetual spring with its luxuriant flowers and trees gives it another name "Green Island". The legend that it was once a habitat of egrets brings about another beautiful name "Egret Island".

"Garden on The Sea" Gulangyu
xiam8.jpg (14155 bytes) Gulangyu Islet of Xiamen is a major scenic spot in the country and enjoys a laudatory title of the "Garden on the Sea" with an area of 1.78 m2.

Gulanyu is an islet in the south of Xiamen, separated forms the downtown by a 500-m-wide strait. Its name, meaning "drumming wave" came from the rocks in the southwest that give a drumming sound when high tide hits them. On the undulate hills, villas of western styles are embedded in the green trees, red flowers, blue waves and white clouds, thus, the islet is praised to be a "Museum of International Architecture." The courtyards and small lanes among flowers and trailers are completely free from noise of vehicles and filled with fragrance and melodious music, giving one sense of fairyland.

Zhongshan Park

Zhongshan Park looks magnificent. Inside the park a bronze statue of Dr.Sun Yetsen stands among flowers, on the base of which is the inscription by her daughter Sun Huifang, "The great democratic revolutionary pioneer Dr.Sun Yetsen". In the park, bridges and pavilions peep out from dancing trees and flowers. The inscriptions by celebrities are found here and there, adding elegance to the place. The Park attracts many tourists every day. xiam3.jpg (18541 bytes)

The South Putuo Temple

The South Putuo Temple at the foot of the Five-Old-Gentleman Peaks, built in the Tang Dynasty, is one of the most reputed Buddhist temples in South Fujian. From the Life-Saving Pool in front of Temple, past the stone steps and into the Temple, one sees the Heaven King's Hall, Drum and Bell Towers, Daxiong Hall, Great Compassion Hall and Scripture Hall. The carved beams and painted columns are beautiful and dignified as well. Enthroned in the halls are the statues of Maitreya. Recerend Three-life-Cycle Buddha, Four Heavenly Kings, Eighteen Arhats, etc, all beautiful carved and serious and solemn in appearance. xiam6.jpg (26195 bytes) The Thousand-Handed Guanyin(Bodhisattva) is so consummately carved that one will wonder whether there is anything superior. The Scripture Hall keeps tens of thousands of Buddhist scriptures in Chinese and other languages, most of which are rare copies. There is in the Temple the bronze Sevenbuddha Pagoda made in the Six Dynasties, Bronze Bell made in the Song Dynasty, and Porcelain Guanying made in the Ming Dynasty and stone inscriptions from the Qing Dynasty. Since the establishment of the Temple, it has experienced several ups and downs. Today, pilgrims pour in from home and abroad.
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Jimei

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Jimei was the hometown of the distinguished overseas Chinese leader Chen Jiagan and is one of the four major science attractions in Xiamen.  Viewed from above, this place is extremely beautiful. The snow-white chain is the ten-mile dyke built in 1953, and red walls and green tiles peeping out form the trees in the middle of the vast blue sea are campuses of the Academic Village Jimei.
         Jimei not only collects the beauty of nature, of architecture but also reveals the love of overseas Chinese for their motherland. From 1912 on, Chen Jiagen lived here for about fifty years and financed a large scale construction of the teachers' school, navigation school, commerce school, farming machine school, kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools, thus bringing about a title of academic village to the place. Before his death, Chen built AO Park, which is decorated with several hundred-granite relies of animals, people and landscape. On the forty odd stone columns are carved figures of national leaders and inscriptions by celebrities, thus making it a modern collection of inscriptions. After Chen's death, AO Park serves as his mausoleum.   In Homecoming Park stands Mr. Chen Jiagen's bronze statue, behind which is the inscription "A banner of overseas Chinese and elitist of the nation" written by Mao Zedong, expressing his high opinion of Chen.

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