Gulangyu Island

 December 28th I went with a Chinese sister-believer-friend to Gulangyu island. She acted as a tour guide and planned out every spot for us. I think we had more than 10 spots to visit on the itinerary. 

We first enjoyed a half-hour boat ride to the island because we set off from the pier for the non-locals. The local pier is very close to the island, maybe around 5-10 minutes.  

In your country can people leave suitcases lined up like this and go explore a place? Here they can without worry of someone stealing them.

Some buildings with original red brick remain and they are very beautiful. 

In the picture below you can see the remains of the building that used to stand here along with a photo of the original. 

First stop on our tour was this church. 

A reminding people about the Good Shepherd. 

Holy Trinity Church - Sān-yī Táng

It was jointly established by the first 3 churches in Xiamen: Xinjie Church, Zhushu Church, Xiagang Church

Three big wealthy families helped to build the church and a school because they had a good relationship with the missionaries who had helped them before. 

The scene inside captured my heart. The atmosphere is very conducive for Bible reading, prayer, and contemplation about God. A few local believers sat with different visitors explaining Jesus and the way of salvation.

Some visitors were reading parts of Scripture on their own. 

The ceiling is a regular cross shape with no beams in the structure which gives a good musical response. 

After the Opium War, the Public Transport concession, foreign council buildings, worship services, music on Gulangyu Island, Qin Island, and buildings from various countries were established. Missionaries built hospitals and schools, combing elements from Western and Chinese cultures. 

The cross gathers in all directions. 

3 represents God. (Refer to picture below.  triangle is sturdy and not easy to break.)

4 is representative. 

3+4=7. Completely eternal

Three doors x 4 square =12 branches

The church has an octagonal ceiling top with a triangle in the circle that Pastor Chen Yi Ping requested. He's very old now, around 94 or 95 and he served this church.   A true product of the time and completed from 1922-1934, the building displays elements from Western and Chinese cultures. 

Here's the entrance to the first kindergarten in China. Its original purpose was to teach kids about God. 

There are some words on this wall about freedom, democracy, harmony, justice, patriotism, etc. This is the second or third time I've seen them near a school building and find it interesting they display some words that don't describe China in the least. My friend told me to take another picture without that part of the wall. 😅

Tom's and Jerry's house on the same step. 😂

This decoration is on some gates and has the Chinese word Persimmon inside. When spring festival comes, people can say to each other Shì shì rú yì which means everything will be good. 

A small graveyard on the mountain. 

Humble Hall: Red Hall 1930 London Society. 

The Congregational Public School is not governed by political power. This is where people called Tremors lived. Named so because they trembled during prayer, shook their whole body, and sang songs in other languages which people thought was crazy and heretical. This people group existed for only a hundred years in history. They emphasized asceticism and distanced themselves from the mundane world. The architecture is simple and unadorned, but its influence lives on. Because they were far away from society, they had to make furniture by themselves.  

This place used to be part of the Gongli Sect and now it is the hotel (passed down for 3 generations until now.) The 18th and 19th centuries have influenced the present (Nordic minimalism, IKEA, and others have been influenced by the craftsmanship.).

The chair has a backrest that can be used to hang things and can also be hung on the wall for easy cleaning. Handmade furniture is very durable and can be used for many years. Although the sect has not been passed down, the craftmanship has been preserved. They believed doing a good job is an honor to God. Their spirit was passed down as well. What is pleasing to God? Service, doing your best. 

Gulangyu Island applied for World Intangible Cultural Heritage Status. If something is valuable, people can apply to this organization and will receive money to keep the place nice. Gulangyu wanted to apply to this organization and the government said no.  The island is considered as the World Architecture Museum because of the blend of many different kinds of buildings from many different cultures. The government wanted to keep the island for the government even though a lot of Christians were living here and building houses, so they removed all the things about Christianity and the missionaries. But fortunately, the cemetery is here and proved that the missionaries did come. Because of this they could apply for the Heritage Status and got approved. This cemetery is full of Christians who devoted their lives to God and the gospel.

Alot of cat footprints are implanted in the cement.

This is the tomb of the man who created Chinese pinyin, Lú Gànzhāng. He wanted everybody to learn Chinese so they could read and understand and know the Bible. 

Built in 1905, this place contains incredible history. Ān Xián Táng . An means calm/peace. Xian means virtuous/worthy/good. People who used to inhabit this place named it so because they thought keeping the Sabbath was super important. They didn't believe in Jesus's resurrection which others thought was pagan, so they only have a short history. They made their own furniture too, similar to Humble Home, and made the building very simple. 

Read more below about the

安礼顺 : Ān Lǐshùn
安 (Ān) — peace, peaceful, calm
礼 (Lǐ) — politeness, courtesy, propriety, treating each other with respect
顺 (Shùn) — harmony, humility, yielding, getting along smoothly
The name expresses the idea of a couple who: live peacefully, treat each other with respect and courtesy, remain humble, harmonious, and accommodating toward one another.
This couple used their own things to serve the church, hospital, and school. They used this way to tell the gospel and Jesus and helped poor kids. His brother delivered a cow from America and built a farm for the kids where they can work and earn money to go to school. They also planted seeds and grew their own food. They went back to America and lived in a garage. One day they met one of their previous students who moved to the U.S. and had a good job and had her own house. Then she invited the couple into her house and took care of them. Amazing, right? That's God's plan.

Glass on top of the wall to prevent burglars from climbing over. 

Ni hao 😀

Inside this tunnel, pictures line the wall telling of contributions made by missionaries and Christians. Of course, very sadly, that part of history is completely removed. 

Qiaozhi Lin is a famous Christian doctor because she never married and no kids. But she helped more than 50,000 babies. . 

This is a girl's only school started by the daughter of an important man we will talk about later, named missionary John. She rightly believed that girls also need education. Dé generally means virtue, moral, ethics, or goodness. (This is in the name I believe...)

Women used to have no chance to learn because of the gross lie believed that men are somehow socially superior to women, making an unfortunate inequality between them. How grateful I am for the strong-hearted women that refused to settle for this nonsense and forged a path for future women. 

This is 美國 (Měiguó) = United States 領事館 (lǐngshìguǎn) = consulate

This is 海天堂垢.  海 (hǎi) = sea, ocean 天 (tiān) = sky, heaven 堂 (táng) = hall, large room 垢 (gòu) = dirt, stain

This is 日本人 (Rìběn rén)  领事馆 (lǐngshìguǎn) : Japanese consulate

You can see the Roman-style pillars.

Then and Now photos

My friend asked the guard to let us go behind the building so we could talk about a sign here. 

I believe this is another one of missionary John's hospitals. The left side for women and the right side for men, the cross uniting them in the middle. Patients would gather here for church. Amazing. 

We spent a while trying to read these faded words. The guard was laughing at us when he saw the angels we had to bend at and moving up and down to see the words in the sunlight. 😄

This pond is located in front of the building. 

Boat house because it resembles a boat. The builder is missionary John who built it for his favorite student whose name was 黄大屁  : 黄 (Huáng) – a common Chinese surname, “Huang.” 大 (dà) – big, great, large. 屁 (pì) – literally means “fart.”

Mr. Huang was a Christian doctor who followed his teacher, missionary doctor John. When he graduated, Mr. Huang stayed with John who worked in the hospital but gave all his salary to other hospitals or the poor guys. And the hospital cared for some people for free so they didn't get any benefit from people. John had to work outside. He helped design wealthy family's homes. Mr. Huang had great character and believed God when John died. Mr. Huang didn't go to the funeral because he thought John would've wanted him to stay in the hospital and help people. So this house was only for this student. 

This is the biggest house in Gu Lang Yu owned by Lin family. The Lin family offered money to doctor John for his building of the hospital and school. He designed the building for them for free but the best materials were from Europe so family Lin had no money to keep going which resulted in bankruptcy. The roof and pillars are Roman style. It was completed a few years ago as a museum.

This was the residence of a missionary of the English Presbyterian Mission.

Dried seafood at a shop

On either side of this church hangs a copy of the 10 commandments and a copy of Scriptures about proverbs of love. (Genesis 2:23-24 ; 1 Corinithians 13:4-8)

We saw couples taking wedding photos in front of the building, and interesting how they will take photos with the Proverbs of Love sign but not with the one that will convince them of sin. 

This is the only Catholic church - all the others are Protestant.

This church demonstrates the local style because local Christians used red brick to build it after they heard about God from their parents.

Took a break in a park to eat a snack - we shared this Christmas tree-shaped bread.

Statue of the incredible single missionary woman doctor, Qiaozhi Lin, and her will (below). 

Reads: A. I donate all my savings - 30,000 yuan (RMB) to the kindergarten and nursery affiliated with the Capital Hospital in Beijing. 

B. My remains are to be delivered to the hospital for further medical research. 

C. My ashes are to be scattered in the sea around Gulangyu Island, my beloved hometown.

Statue of children to represent kids whom the doctor helped.

Ma Yuehan was a Christian who believed that sports provided character training and a means for a well-rounded personality. His statue stands across a school field. 

 Turkish ice cream is a little sticky in that it can stretch a bit and tastes delicately creamy. My friend ordered one and it's a whole show to get it. The man held the cone with a long pole and each time she tried to grab it he would move quickly out of grasp. Eventually he gave to her, and she asked for a spoon so we could share it. He didn't have a spoon so gave another cone instead. Nice! We got 2 ice creams for the price of 1. 😀

I like these wood doors.

Sunset scenes from the boat as we left the island.

This is a boat like the one we sailed on.

My friend said, "take a picture of your water bottle with the sunset! It has traveled to many places." 😂

And the sticker reminds me that God is with me always, no matter where I go. 

This is Xiàmén Fùyòng Bǎojiànyuàn, a hospital for women and children. We stopped by here on the way home to view the statue of the doctor who contributed much because of her love for God.

After this long, wonderful day, we wanted to eat hotpot, so we first went to this very popular restaurant. Unfortunately, the wait was going to be a couple hours as there were over 300 tables waiting before us. 

The next best thing is to cook your own hotpot so we stopped by the supermarket for ingredients and went to her house where we enjoyed amazing food. 

The spread for 4 people. 😄

Have you ever tried hotpot? You lay out a bunch of uncooked ingredients and make the soup base. Add the ingredients to the pot and as they're done cooking take out and eat. It's a wonderful meal that invites sharing and great happiness among friends and family. I'm really thankful for my believer friend and her love for God and investment into my life. 💗