What is it like to be an aboriginal person on Gulangyu Island?

I have lived in Gulangyu Island for two years, just like the aborigines. Let me talk about my experience:

In the first year, I rented a house on Longtou Road. It was considered a community and there was a small door to enter. , the building was not high, the exterior walls were creamy white, and it was fully furnished with one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom. The price was 1,500 yuan/month. At that time, it was around 2010.

Tour groups come in every morning on Longtou Road with small flags, from all over the country and from Taiwan. There is a vegetable market on Longtou Road with a lot of seafood. At dusk, freshly caught fish are placed in red plastic pots on both sides of the aisle. At that time, there was only one supermarket on Gulangyu Island. Rice, flour, grains and oils were bought at the vegetable market, and some daily necessities were bought at convenience stores. Things on the island were delivered by various ships.

I often want to leave the island, and the transportation to and from the island is by ferry. At that time, it was free to enter the island, and it cost 4 yuan to leave the island. Now it seems to be 8 yuan or 12 yuan? Later, I applied for a ferry card, which was only available to people from Gulangyu Island. I took this ferry back and forth. At first, I went to the second floor to see the scenery. Later, I got used to it and treated it as a bus, and I lost the excitement I had at the beginning. I just want to get there quickly. There was a typhoon and the ferries were stopped. It was not known when they would open. The residents returning to the island had to wait, and I waited too. It was very late before a ferry was opened to take the residents to the island.

It takes 3-4 hours to walk around Gulangyu Island. I walked about more than 100 times. There are no motorized vehicles or bicycles on Gulangyu Island, so it is very suitable for walking. I like to walk from Yanwei Road at dusk. The yellow lights are hung on the cliffs, illuminating the sea on one side and the road on the other side. At this time, there are no Tourists, you can walk slowly and go around. They are all villas. Later, a few B&Bs were opened. There is a restaurant on the beach, right on the beach. They cook fish in soy sauce water. My friend came and we are here too. He ate and drank beer in the night breeze. He drank 6 bottles and got drunk.

The alleys in Gulangyu Island are very beautiful. There were not many people taking wedding photos at that time. The further you go north from Longtou Road, the fewer people there are. There are small walls, trees, flowers, and some dilapidated villas. , the villa still has an owner, but it just sits there. There are also some B&Bs, bars, cafes, and bookstores. The most popular ones are snacks, fish ball noodles, fried sea oysters, pork swallows, fried five-spice, mochi, and roll pancakes. Wait, they are all small shops, and they don’t greet you. You go in and ask, and someone will answer you. In the first three months of my arrival, I often took the wrong path. Later, I became more and more familiar with it, and I could go back no matter how I went around the alley. When I come back in the evening, I often hear the sound of piano and piano practice, but there is no complete piece of music.

Gulangyu Island at night

Gulangyu Island

Gulangyu Island’s alley

Gulangyu Island’s alley

Gulangyu Island’s alley

I often go swimming. There are two bathing beaches on Gulangyu Island. The water is not clean, but I also go swimming, even when it rains. I just go swimming without taking anything. One time when I came back from swimming, someone shouted in the alley, "You're all wet. Come in and sit down. It turned out to be a small shop selling fried five-spice meat and bird's roll pancakes. I can't say that I deliberately got wet in the rain like this. I would have thought that someone came from Gulangyu Island." Crazy, even though poets living in seclusion on the island are like this, but I don’t have the temperament of a poet, so I went in. I didn’t bring any money, so the aunt said, it doesn’t matter, I’ll make up for it next time, so I ate a vegetable pancake and meat swallows, and ate them up. I wasn’t full, so I ordered another fried five-spice dish.

Later I often went to this place. The aborigines on Gulangyu Island were very peaceful, unlike the outsiders who later flooded into the island to run various businesses. Their eyes were often red and their breathing was uneven.

A small shop in the alley of Gulangyu Island

The traditional Chinese medicine doctor I often visit on the island is not a businessman, but just a family. The old man is a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. I don’t know if he has a certificate. One time I was wandering in an alley and saw a couplet on the door of a house. It was about two long couplets embedded together, such as "Lingshu Suwen" and "The Yellow Emperor's Thousand Gold Cannons".

The old man happened to come over. He was the owner and asked me, "Do you know what I mean?"

I just said it, it’s not that I know Chinese medicine, I know martial arts, I have watched Swordsman, and I have watched it many times, so I still know a little about Ling Su Su Wen, and I can answer the questions fluently, so , the old man invited me to sit in, and his wife brought out a cup of tea, tea made from herbal medicine. He had a yard with pots full of herbs. He was writing a medical book, but there was no publisher to publish it. I spent my own money and still didn’t underwrite it. I went to drink herbal tea several times in the past two years, but I really couldn't help with the publishing of the book. After I left, I lost contact with him. If I had such a courtyard, if I didn't publish a book, I would just be a medicine fairy.

The villas on Gulangyu Island were later rented out by lodges. There are many celebrities and historical sites, and some houses have lost their owners. The deep courtyards are particularly suitable for filming movies. There are also people living in the villas. There are two places that left a deep impression on me. One is at the corner of Zhaohe Road. There is a very big villa. It is only separated from the sea by a road. When pedestrians pass by, two lines of villas will inevitably come out of the yard railings. The big wolf dog barked at people, but the owner was nowhere to be seen. There are several villas on Yanping Road. On sunny afternoons, the nanny is in a daze in the yard. The owner of the villa has not come back for a long time, and she is the only one looking after the house.

Longtou Road was so lively that the people selling kitchen knives all knew me. Later I moved to the Neicuo Ao area, where it was more peaceful and peaceful people could always find a chair and meditate.

When I first went to Gulangyu Island to look for a house, I carried my bag and walked under two rocks, which seemed to be a breakfast shop. Just take a shower. I found out later that the temple had a vegetarian meal today. However, I never went there again. I passed by but never went in.

To put it simply, if there were not so many businesses on Gulangyu Island later, maybe there would be fewer businesses, or the businesses were not opened by outsiders, but by the aborigines of the island themselves, that would be really It’s a fairy island. It’s neither hot nor cold all year round. The scenery is great. It’s very close to Zhongshan Road in the downtown area. It’s not too close. It only takes 20 minutes to take a ferry or take a quick trip. The only flaw on the island is the west side. There are too many tombs, and almost no one lives in the villa opposite the tomb. It has been abandoned for too long, which is scary. It is said that the islanders at that time immigrated abroad. Maybe the old houses left several generations ago are no longer needed, but the country I can’t move it anymore. It belongs to my personal property. I once stayed on the island for one night while traveling. When I woke up in the morning, the birds were singing and the flowers were fragrant. I wandered aimlessly on the island during the day and went to the beach to bask in the sun. The seaside of Gulangyu Island is not very beautiful. It's very ordinary. I walk along the seaside road towards Longtou Road. I don't remember many small roads in the middle. There is a big commercial street. To be honest, the things are not that good. The souvenirs are the same all over the country. Do you want to eat or drink? Xiaogui, it’s not that delicious, but it’s a bit unique. For out-of-town tourists, when you’re tired from walking, you can just find a coffee shop to drink coffee in a daze, and watch some of the shopkeepers make up stories about misfortune. In the evening, walk along Longtou Road to the Piano Wharf and watch the night view of Xiamen on the shore of the tidal flat. You can take a cruise and enjoy the sea breeze and watch the night view of the entire Xiamen center. It’s so beautiful. You can go shopping in the evening. Let’s have a drink at the bar,,,,haha,, what’s it like to be an aboriginal person on Gulangyu Island?

First, let me briefly talk about the experience of being an indigenous person in Xiamen.

Unlike Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Longyan, which have multiple counties and cities,

Xiamen, located on the southeast coast of Fujian Province, is really small.

So this is often the case: high school classmates are junior high school classmates of elementary school classmates, and the children of parents and colleagues are kindergarten classmates, elementary school classmates, middle school classmates, and college classmates.

Just walking on the street. It is very likely that you will meet alumni and leadership colleagues from kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school and high school who you have known for a long time, are acquaintances, or have not seen for many years. There is often a situation where residents in the entire community cannot say that they all know each other, but they can say hello and exchange a few words when they meet. It feels like the locals in the entire district or even the entire city of Xiamen can relate to themselves or the people around them... I am a native of Xiamen but not an aborigine of Gulangyu Island.

However, due to the intricate and inseparable interpersonal network in the entire city, I have many relatives and friends of the aborigines on Gulangyu Island around me. When I was with them, I heard a lot of stories about their life in Gulangyu Island.

A good friend of my father’s uncle lived in Gulangyu for several years because his children went to school in Gulangyu.

I remember that I was still in primary school at that time, and my uncle’s child was a few years older than me and went to Xiamen Music School.

At that time, the schoolwork was not very heavy, so when I had time, I often went to Gulangyu Island with my father to make tea with my uncle.

I remember that my uncle lived in an old Western-style villa. From the living room window on the second floor, I could see the ferry and the sea around the island.

At that time, Xiamen was not a popular tourist city, and Gulangyu Island was just a small residential island on the edge of Xiamen Island.

There were no SLR tourists in long skirts and straw hats, and there was no literary Zhang San. Crazy Milk Tea,

There is no grand scene of crowds of people crowding the ferry, but more of a peaceful feeling of living in a corner of the city.

There are no motor vehicles on the island. Residents living on Gulangyu often go out to buy groceries in short-sleeved pants and flip-flops in the summer.

They walk from the market to their homes along the narrow road beside the beach. Passing through quaint shops, accompanied by the sound of music on the island, the sound of the sea lapping the shore, the sound of the wind blowing the betel nut trees, and the setting sun shining on me, I felt that the days were long and beautiful, and it was really like facing the sea and the spring flowers blooming. At that time, I liked to go for a walk on the seaside outside with my friends in the afternoon

My parents grew up on the seaside, and my grandma and grandma’s family were the kind of people who could see the sea within a few steps of their house. ,

I have never left the sea since I was a child.

So I always have a special emotion for the sea. I like and enjoy the feeling of being by the sea.

So much so that when I returned home from studying abroad, I would be very excited when I saw the sea for the first time. Later, my uncle’s children went to high school in Xiamen Island, and their family moved back to Xiamen Island. I went to middle school, and rarely went to Gulangyu Island in those years.

I played at my uncle’s house in those years. The memory has become one of the best memories of Gulangyu in my memory.

My high school roommate studied at a music school in junior high school.

Probably because Xiamen is really not that big, you can basically count it with your fingers in middle school. Xiamen Foreign Languages ??(English-Chinese), Xiamen No. 1 Middle School, No. 2 Middle School, No. 6 Middle School, No. 8 Middle School (Double Ten), No. 11 Middle School...

Xiamen Foreign Languages ??School, also called English Middle School at that time, was first established in The music school on Gulangyu Island has many students with musical talents. The campus is located on Gulangyu Island, the "Piano Island", and they complement each other.

Many of my classmates in high school live on Gulangyu Island.

And their "special treatment" is that they can leave early when there is a typhoon... I remember that there was a city-wide typhoon warning in the first year of high school. The school broadcast informed the students who lived in Gulangyu to go home immediately... The male classmate at the back of my desk was a native of Gulangyu Island. Just when he was chatting with his classmate, the teacher called on him and asked him to go back to the dormitory immediately to pack his things and go home. So the classmate at the back of the class who was halfway through class was in the envy of others. He walked out of the classroom in his eyes, with deep reluctance for his deskmate... When I was in college, I met a classmate who graduated from Shuangshi Middle School and was also from Xiamen.

She grew up in Gulangyu Island. She spent her elementary and junior high school years in Gulangyu Island, and then moved to Xiamen Island when she was in middle school.

She said that the students in the class who specialized in musical instruments and took the path of art students are now music teachers.

The working hours are free and relaxed. In contrast, those who had good grades in cultural classes back then did not Students who take the path of students with artistic talents don't seem to have a better life than them now, but thinking about it, I think it's okay.

She said that she was very naughty when she was a child. She often teased her classmates and got into all kinds of troubles. The living environment in Gulangyu, which was generally known to everyone, caused her to be punished by the teacher in the morning.

Go home at noon. Later, my parents knew about it, then the whole community knew about it, and then basically the whole island knew about it...

I asked what it was like to live in Gulangyu as a child, and she said that she didn't seem to have any feelings at that time.

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I just thought it would be troublesome to go to Xiamen Island and I had to take a ferry. Later, I moved to Xiamen Island when I was in high school. In addition, the harsh high school learning environment of Shuangshi Middle School was completely incompatible with her chic and domineering style. On the contrary, I began to feel that the time I lived in Gulangyu Island was quite good.

It seems that I have rarely gone to Gulangyu since I went to college.

Many of the friends I used to play with at that time are no longer in Xiamen. Some are still studying abroad, and some have already worked and settled outside. Many of the classmates who stayed in Xiamen no longer live on Gulangyu Island. When I go to Gulangyu Island again, I will miss the friends I played with when I was young.

I hope they will live well all over the world.