amoy Archives - Shanghailander

Xiamen, the South East Asia connection

Xiamen heritage is often linked to the island of Gulangyu about which I have written several posts. There is much more to it as Xiamen had 2 concessions. The original concession was the port of Amoy (English transcription close to the local dialect) / 厦门. It became part of the 5 first treaty port from the 1842 Nanjing treaty. It has to be noted that the prior battle of Amoy on 26th Aug 1841 was pivotal for the city and the whole of China.

As Amoy had long been a center for export of tea and silk, foreign trading companies found a natural home for their business. However, foreigners soon moved to Gulangyu to establish there base. The island became an international settlement in 1903, similar to the Shanghai international settlement. Modern urban development including paved road and electrification took place on the island, leaving the city behind for many years.

Fujian has a long been closely connected to South East Asia. Many Chinese traders moved to Melaka and Penang in the 18th and 19th Century. The main Chinese dialect in South East Asia is Hokkien, called MinNan Hua / 闽南话 in China, the language from South Fujian. The connection is also reflected in the food with Xiamen Sha Cha Mian being very close to Malaysian Laksa, and stir fried rice noodle being very similar in both places.

The return of Fujian immigrants from South East Asia in late 1920s sparkled the development of the city. With the 1929 crises taking on the World, China was still a good place to invest so people of South East Asian heritage cake back to Fujian. This fueled a construction boom in Amoy that transformed the city. Although technically a British Concession, Amoy was modernized by ethnic Chinese, not Westerners.

ZhongShan road / 中山路 feels very much like Shanghai Nanking Road (Today Nanjing Xi Lu / 南京西路). It was the high street were shoppers would flock, with a tramway line going up to the river. All buildings along this road date from 1929 or around that period, the time of the real-estate boom.

Although from the late 1920s, most of those buildings are of a style that was not modern of the time. With many glass color windows, they reflect more the style of colonial South East Asia than modernity. “Chinese from South East Asia were very conservative for architecture. They built in the style they knew, that was popular in South East Asia where they came from”, explained Aaron from Discover Amoy, a local friend who studied the history of his own city.

A few buildings in the area are of modernist style or Art Deco, including the ones above. Buildings on Zhong Shan lu have been restored, but it’s not the case of the side streets. A few steps away, nice buildings from the same time are still waiting for renovation. One of my favorite is Art Deco Orion novie theater.

Orion theater, a great art deco building

The main department store was run by French people, with “Epicerie” written on the store front (see below picture) of then and now.

Although Zongshan lu has received a lot of attention, the rest of the area is not so well preserved. It worth strolling around the whole area and enjoy the view. Hopefully, the preservation effort will be extended further.

For more info about other old foreign influenced city in China, go to post “Up River, Hankou’s foreign concessions” for Hankou (today Wuhan). For Tianjin, go to post “Piazza Regina Elena, Tientsin”. For posts about the island of Gulangyu follow this link.

French Consulate of Amoy

Xiamen/厦门, historically called “Amoy” after the local dialect pronunciation, had a long history of international trade before becoming one of the five “Treaty ports” in 1842 following the treaty of Tianjin. Foreign consuls moved from Amoy city to the island of Gulangyu (鼓浪屿), located opposite the city in 1902. The whole island became an international settlement, with land regulations and municipal council like in Shanghai and consulates from many nations. Gulangy (鼓浪屿) is one of my favorite places in China, and I have been to the island 5 times since 2005 (See posts “Night on Gulangyu“, “Rain on Gulangyu” and “The revival of Gulangyu” for more details). This new trip was an opportunity to search for the former Amoy French Consulate on the island.

The backwater island I first saw in 2005 has now transformed into a tourism Mecca since getting on of the UNESCO protected heritage list in 2017. Although tourists have come in number, it is still possible to avoid massive crowds by visiting the island in the low season, like in the winter apart from Chinese New Year. With a little sun, temperature gets easily to 15-20 degrees, perfect for walking around. Most crowded roads are the one going along the coast overviewing Xiamen city, as well as the one going through the island to the main beach. They are best avoided in the afternoon, when most people come over.

As per the old maps, the former French Consulate of Amoy (or “Consulat Français de Amoy” in French), was located on a secluded beach on the South West side of the island. The whole area around “11” on the map is now the Gulangyu Piano museum. The former Chan Bay West road (today Tian Wei Road) is blocked, as part of a large estate that was probably military zone a few years ago. Fortunately, today’s Tianwei Road splits into two branches, one of each is open leading to the former Danish Telegraph Office and former Oeitjoe Garden.

As indicated on the map, the former French Consulate is the building on the other side of the jetty, on the Chan Bay Beach. Although the building itself cannot be accessed, I managed to catch a picture (see below). A large plot of land around the former consulate was surrounded by large tents, and 2 rickshaws (!) were parked in the front. My guess is that it is currently used as a film set.

Although it has quite a vast plot of land, Amoy French Consulate was never really seen as important by the French administration. Very little information is available on the internet about it. After consulate closure in the late 1940s, the Consulate’s archives were kept at the French Embassy in Beijing until 1981, when they were brought back to France. As French historian Roger Pérennès explains, France had a presence in Amoy since 1901, with a vice-Consulate from 1906 to 1916. Below picture from the Australian University archives stating “Amoy, at the French Consulate” is dated from 1907.

A proper consulate was only open on 1st December 1925, with Fernand Roy (1885-1967) being the Consulate for most of the time until end 1939. With little activity during WW2, the consulate finally closed down in February 1946.

Since the consulate was actually open very much later than others, it could explain that the location is away from the main port, on a more secluded part of the island as better located ground were already taken. As a comparison, the American, British and Japanese Consulates were located on the other side of the island, overlooking Xiamen and the main port. I did not find any information about the construction of the French consulate building, but the building looks like it was “ruinovated” at some point later. Below is another picture I shot in 2009 in a previous visit that is mentioned in post “The revival of Gulangyu” when garden and the building was much better maintained.

The site of the French consulate is located near the former Northern telegraph office, which was built in 1918 in a somewhat similar style (see below).

The next building on the road, shown on the map but with no mention, is also of similar style. It was probably built around the same time.

Hopefully more information will come up about the former French Consulate in Amoy as French archives and others are researched. I will definitely come back to my favorite Island Gulangyu. For more posts about this topic, see posts “Night on Gulangyu“, “Rain on Gulangyu” and “The revival of Gulangyu“.

For more information about French Consulates in Old China, see post “Former Shanghai French Consulate“.

Rain on Gulangyu

It took us ten years to come back to the wonderful island of Gulangu, off Xiamen in Fujian province. Since the Island was added on the UNESCO World heritage in 2017, even bigger crowds of tourists are coming to visit it. While it is surely packed on some days, being off season and with the help of the rain helped us find again the feeling we had in previous trips.

Thanks to gwulo.com, I came with a historic map of the island from 1947 for historical orientation. Since last trip in 2012, the first big change was the harbor. Massive ferries now go to a redeveloped port in a less touristic part of the island, with the original and ferry harbor being reserved for inhabitants. The area around the new port has seen some new construction, matching the old style so it keeps some of the characters. The new port is close to the large tunnel, that it taking people on a quieter side of the island, where we stayed this time and did not know much about before. The new port has directed some tourists to a less developed part of the island, which is good for spreading crowds.

Although historic houses are also found in this part of the island, they tend to be less grand and less numerous than the ones facing Xiamen on the other side. This area was the main fishing port, where the Amoy tinning Co was located, a major employer on the island (Amoy tinning company moved to Hong Kong in the early 50’s but the brand still exist). This whole surrounding area is now a park all along the Coast of the Island. No road or park was indicated on old maps and the harbor reduced quite a bit compared with the old time.

Going around the island, we reached the (now) main port again, passing by the former American Consulate. I remember that it originally had great view over Xiamen, it is now partly obstructed by new constructions, but still visible.

With intermittent rain falling, we managed to reach the other side of the island where the largest villas are and we stayed several times (See post “The revival of Gulangyu“). This area has several churches including the beautiful catholic church. Some of the large mansion have been turned to museums, like the Hai Tian Tang Gou Mansion (海天堂构) that was under renovation during our first trip in 2007 trip. The new one is transformation of the beautiful Huang RongYuan mansion into the China Record museum. I think I came to look at this house and took the same picture every time I came Gulangyu. Finally being able to visit it was really enjoyable. I’ll write a post dedicated to the museum itself later.

Back side of the Hai Tian Tang Gou Mansion (海天堂构)

A nice addition to the area is a massive bookstore in a beautifully renovated old mansion and few steps away from the entrance of both museum, it is impossible to miss. Great place to stop for a coffee break in the pouring rain.

Night on Gulangyu is always a magical time, so I took a stroll after dark. With very few people and very little noise, the island was once again just for me to stroll. Our last day was a Saturday and the weather was much better. Crowd was much larger but not enough to make it unpleasant. Coming to Gulangyu in off peak times is still the best way to enjoy it. We’ll be definitely back again.

For more post about Gulangyu, go to “The revival of Gulangyu“, “Night on Gulangyu” and “French Consulate of Amoy“.

Night on GuLangYu

GuLangYu island (鼓浪屿), off Xiamen in Fujian province, has always been one of my favorite place in China and I went there already 4 times. The yearly trips to the island were mostly in the winter (see post “The revival of Gulangyu), an easy escape from Shanghai fog and humidity. This time I went in September, a different time with a different weather but the island is still magical.

Night picture on GuLanYu — A nice atmosphere

At our first trip to GuLangYu in 2007, not many people (at least from Shanghai) stayed overnight in the island. Accommodation was very limited and the only place open after 9pm was the Mc Donald’s at the ferry port, where we ended up one night. We found the one cafe on the hillside, enjoying coffee and 20C in the sunshine with the only company of the owners. I think this coffee house has disappeared since. Winter in GuLanYu is the low season and we felt at that time that the island belonged to us.

The following year, we stayed at a small home hotel but the weather got so cold that we spent most time in Naya Cafe drinking hot chocolate and eating warm food. We even ended up escaping the cold and the island, spending the last night in a big hotel on the Xiamen side. As written in post “The revival on GuLangYu“, by the third time we went the island had already transformed and a few more hotels had opened.

Three years have passed since and many many more hotels have now opened. From the experience in Chinese mass tourism, I was afraid that the island atmosphere would not survive.

Luckily, we arrived on the last night of the GuLangYu piano festival. Concerts are free and we could enjoy an unexpected but small and intimate concert from American/Uzbek piano master Stanislas Ioudenitch. The crowd attending the concert was really attentive and silent, a change from noisy and often uninterested crowds in Shanghai classical music concert. The festival attracted many people and I was really surprised of the crowd remaining on the island even after the concert. Not that many tourists used to stay on the island, this has definitely changed. It is now even possible to get a beer in a bar with music at 10:00pm, something unthinkable a few years ago. At the same time, the atmosphere has lost a bit from what I was used to. It’s only by walking around the small streets on the hills, away from the main street that I could find back the old tranquility of GuLangYu. Walking down the empty streets of the island, it felt again like being out of time, like being back again in the 1930’s when GuLangYu was a foreign concession off Xiamen.

The next day saw one of the best weather I have ever seen on the Island. We climbed up the rock, giving a splendid view up to Xiamen Bund. Just like in some parts of Shanghai, the contrast between the old houses from the concessions and the skyscrapers on the other side of the straight is stunning. As the piano festival was already finished, there was already less crowd on the island, but still quite many. Nights on GuLanYu are still magical and quite, but the days are now the one of main tourist attraction. Best go there in the winter, as there will should be much less people. This trip took place just before the October holidays, I later heard than one week later (during the actual holidays), the number of visitors increased tremendously, way over the existing records. I’m not sure how quiet the nights on GuLangYu were then, but fortunately I had already left.

For more information about Gulangyu (鼓浪屿), please go to post “Rain on Gulangyu” and “French Consulate of Amoy“.