Piano pier

Piano wharf is one of the most commonly used docks from Xiamen island to Gulangyu by boat. It is the design of modern abstract art. The wharf building is integrated with the sea, with blue and white as the main color, making the wharf integrated with the natural sea sky scenery, becoming the first scenic spot for tourists to enter Gulangyu.

Piano pier

There used to be no special ferry terminal between Xiamen and Gulangyu Island. Instead, they were ferried by sampan and paddle boats. In 1937, the community leaders proposed to build XiaGu ferry terminal, which was started on June 9 of that year. On the Xiamen side, it was built at the head of Daomei Road on Zhongshan Road, and on the Gulangyu side, it was built at the former site of "piggy wharf" at the export of Chinese laborers. "Piggy" is a derogatory term used by Western powers to sell Chinese laborers in Xiamen after the Opium War. According to Xiamen Customs records, from 1886 to 1917, the average number of "contracted Chinese laborers" exported from Xiamen as "piglets" was 65000 per year, up to 125000 per year. Most of them were sold to America, Africa, Australia and Southeast Asia.

brief introduction

On October 16, 1937, the ferry terminal was completed, and the "Liqiao", "Litong" and "jinzaixing" steamboats were hired as ferries, with four flights per hour. After the fall of Xiamen on May 13, 1938, the Japanese aggressors successively purchased "Xiaan", "Xiahe" and "Xiaxing". After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, these steam turbines were still in use.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, with the development of society, the old wharf can not bear the increasing passenger flow. In 1976, the municipal government decided to expand the Gulangyu ferry terminal and purchase a large ferry capable of carrying more than 600 passengers at a time. In soliciting the architectural scheme of the ferry terminal, Lin Jinyi, engineer of Xiamen Design Institute, selected the "semi vault scheme", which is a design of modern abstract art. Lin Jinyi's idea at that time was: the wharf building and the sea are integrated, with blue and white as the main color, so that the wharf can integrate into the natural sea sky scenery, and become the first scenic spot for tourists to enter Gulangyu.

After the completion of the pier, Xiamen people said that it was an "open grand piano" and a symbol of Qindao, which is in line with the original intention of the designer: to make tourists feel the "island of music" as soon as they set foot on Gulangyu!

Expansion and reconstruction

If you don't get to Gulangyu, you don't get to Xiamen. Such a concept makes tourists come in droves. Last year, Gulangyu, with an area of only 1.87 square kilometers, welcomed tens of millions of tourists, most of whom went to the island through the piano pier, which made the piano pier "breathless".

In order to let Gulangyu piano pier "take a breath", neicuoao pier is newly built on the island, sanqiutian pier and Gulangyu piano pier square are expanded. In 2012, the expansion projects of piano wharf and sanqiutian wharf were started and put into use in August, forming a "tripartite confrontation" pattern with neicuoao wharf.

Address: East of Gulangyu Island, Xiamen

Longitude: 118.073461

Latitude: 24.446399

Tour time: half an hour

Ticket information: Free

Opening hours: 05:50 ~ 12:30