Centennial Gulangyu Museum

No. 62, Fujian Road, Gulangyu, Siming District, Xiamen

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Guide

This museum focuses on the cultural history of Gulangyu, displaying artifacts used by foreigners from fifteen countries on the island, realistically recreating the living environment of Gulangyu a century ago.
You can wander through the eighteen exhibition halls and feel the passage of time.
This place witnessed China's tortuous journey into modernization under the impact of the early wave of globalization in the late Qing Dynasty and is a model of multicultural exchange, collision, and mutual learning in the early stages of globalization.
The Centennial Gulangyu Museum focuses on the cultural history of Gulangyu. Located on the former site of the Overseas Chinese Bank Villa a century ago, it displays artifacts used by foreigners from fifteen countries on the island, presenting the vicissitudes of time through physical objects and realistically recreating the living environment of Gulangyu a century ago. Wander through the eighteen exhibition halls in the century-old Overseas Chinese Bank Villa and feel the passage of time.
In 1902, Gulangyu was divided by the great powers. Thirteen countries (some say fifteen), including Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Sweden, and the Philippines, successively established consulates on the island, forming a "Consular Corps," and setting up a "Public Works Bureau" and a "Mixed Court." This is an indelible and painful memory of Gulangyu. On the other hand, that special era also created the prosperity and many legends of Gulangyu, and the captivating Gulangyu culture of today gradually took shape at that time.
However, whether it was humiliation or glory, it has now faded away with the passing of time, and most of us can only imagine the vicissitudes of the past through written descriptions.