Gulangyu competes for recognition as World Heritage site

Gulangyu, a small island of 1.88 square kilometres and a population of around 20,000 residents, located near Xiamen in Fujian province, is competing with ten other Chinese cultural sites to be on the next UNESCO world heritage list in 2016.

Since the island became a treaty port after the first Opium War in 1842, several European countries and Japan have left their mark on the island. Consulates, churches and villas were built in a Victorian architectural style, creating a kind of Western-Asian hybrid style of building. This architectural diversity has made Gulangyu well known, drawing constant flows of tourists. Thus, Xiamen municipality has introduced some regulations in terms of heritage conservation and is considering a visitor limit of 30,000 per day, according to Xinhua News Agency.