厦门鼓浪屿一一八卦楼

厦门鼓浪屿一一八卦楼

1，历史背景，八卦楼

2，万国建筑博物馆，钢琴之岛音乐之乡，步行岛。三大特色！

Initially called “Yuanshazhou Island”,Gulangyu got its present name due to the ocean waves hitting the huge reef .It was said there is a big reef in the southwest of the islet。Every time when the ocean waves hitting the reef 。It generated a sound listening like the beating of a drum ,therefore，this island was named “Gulangyu”.Because In Chinese, gu means “drum” and “lang” means “wave”,while the “yu” means “islet”. (鼓浪屿名字的由来)

Before we arrived here, I want to make a simple introduction of Gulangyu.

钢琴之岛，音乐之乡:Gulangyu is known as the “hometown of music “and the “island of pianos”.As early as 1920,the islet has possessed the most piano in the country.And it was said that each family on the islet has at least one family member that can play a musical instrument 。Wandering around the island in the afternoon or early evening ,you may catch the sounds of music .

步行岛:The second one is the island is a pedestrian -only destination .the only vehicles on this island are several fire trucks and electric tourist carts .no matter who you are and how much money you have, if you want to have a visit carefully,you have to walk around the island on your own foot and this island is connect to the main island of Xiamen only by ferry .

万国建筑博物馆:Apart from the two characters, the islet is most known as “China’s Museum of international Architecture, the islet preserves more than 1000 historical buildings of various styles, adding much charm to the island .

why there is so much architecture appear the islet?It can be dating from the 1840s to 1930s.In the 1840 Britain launched the aggressive opium war against the Qing empire ,which also often seen as the beginning of European hegemony towards china .After the war breakout, Xiamen was forced to become a one of the five trading ports. A total of 13 countries come to here to built there own consulates including Britain,the United state ,Japan, Spain, France and Germany .and set up the firm, hospital, school and churches. In the same time，From the 1894 to 1930，some rich overseas Chinese also come here to built house and villas to invest the real estate. So just in 15 years, this island has appeared more than 1000 villas and get a nickname “Architectural Exhibition of ten thousand nations.”

八卦楼:Ok ,in front of us this is the landmark building of Gulangyu .Eight Diagrams House ,or Bagua lou .The building was built in 1907 by LinerJia ,a rich business in Taiwan. May be you will wonder why a Taiwanese people want to come here to a house？ It can be date 1984s,when the Sino-Japanese war break out ，with the fail in the war ，the Taiwan was forced to ceded to the Japan. And He didn’t want to conquered by Japan ,so he take all his family members to come back to the motherland .But, When he was return to the motherland , the war break out everywhere in china. And it is not easy to find a peaceful place to live. So, when he found there are so much foreigners consulate was built on the island and this island is equal to the international settlement which means the islet is more safety than other places and it will never break out the war .so he decided to come to here to built his villa.

After he come to here, he find this island has 1014 villas ,but there are not so much belongs to China. So he made up his mind ,he want to built a house here, and this villa must have one special feature when he stand on the top of the house he can overlook the whole islet。what does it means ? It means he want his house higher than foreign houses and he want to compare with the others。

So he ask the capital of the hospital -DR.John Abraham to design a sketch for him。When he first saw the sketch, He was so like it that he didn’t think much about it and begin construction. But problems was occurred in the process of building , there are a lot of building materials are hard to be buy in backward china, and most of them have to be bought from overseas. Sometimes even the materials Can be bought from the overseas are all need to have a further processing.over 13 years ,from 1907 to 1920, he keeps pouring the money to build the house. But until he put all his money, the house still not finished. And he became the first people who go bankrupt for building a house in Gulang Yu. And ridiculously ，he never live in the building for one day .

OK, that’s all the introduction of Gulang yu, you can walk around by yourself and we’ll meet outside the buildings in 20 minutes .Thank you.

词汇拓展:

pedestrain -only destination 步行岛

Fire truck ，electric tourist carts 消防车

China's museum of international architecture/Architecture exhibition of ten thousand nations。万国建筑博物馆

Preserve 保留 various styles 各种各样的

Launched the aggressive war ，opium war

Hegemony toward to china ，one of the five trading ports 。5个通商口岸之一

Estate 房地产 Landmark building 地标

Eight diagrams 八卦楼

ceded to Japan 割让 sketch 草图