Jimei -- China's College Town!

Click to Access
OUTSIDE China
Click to Access
INSIDE China
TRAVEL LINKS
Xiamen Gulangyu
Jimei Tong'an
Jinmen Z hangzhou
Quanzhou Wuyi
#1Fujian Sites!
Fujian Foto Album
Books on Fujian
Readers'Letters
Ningde Zhouning
Longyan Sanming
Putian Bridges
Travel Info,
Hakka Roundhouses
Travel Agents

MISC. LINKS
Amoy People!
Darwin Driving
Amoy Tigers
Chinese Inventions
Tibet in 80 Days
Amoy Vampires!
Dethroned!
Misc.Writings
Latest News
Lord of Opium
Back to Main Page

Kung Fu

AmoyMagic--Guide to Xiamen & Fujian
Copyright 2001-7 by Sue Brown & Dr. Bill Order Books Xiamenguide Forum
Main Page Business Links Recreation Links Google Search E-mail
Jimei Turtle Garden(Aoyuan, 鳌园)
Adapted from "Amoy Magic--Guide to Xiamen and Fujian"
Jimei Links: Jimei Univ.Tan Kah Kee Biography Jimei Primary SchoolJimei Turtle Garden (鳌园),Returnees Hall(归来堂)Dragon Boat Races(龙舟)Yanping (Delayed Peace) Old Fortress(延平故垒)Jixing Causeway(集杏海堤)Xiamen Bridge

A Grave Undertaking I’d have thought the idea of transforming an island mausoleum into a major tourist side would be dead in the water, but Mr. Tan’s tomb is a big draw for crowds of admirers dying to learn more about this great man. Like many tombs, Tan’s tomb (and the island itself) is shaped like a turtle. For Chinese, turtles symbolize longevity, though since the folks in the tombs have already passed on I’m not sure what the point is (eternally dead, maybe?)

Mr. Tan spent a decade building Sea Turtle Garden, from 1950 to 1960, on the former site of Turtle Head Palace—a small Mazu temple destroyed by the Japanese during WW II. The ever-practical Tan chose this site for his garden and liberation memorial because it would not take up valuable farmland.

The 976m2 garden’s centrepiece is the 28-meter high Jimei Liberation Memorial Tablet (集美解放纪念碑), which has an inscription by Chairman Mao on the front and on the back a calligraphic work that the 78-year-old Mr. Tan 3 spent 3 months writing during the summer of 1952.

The memorial’s first level is 8-steps representing the 8-year anti-Japanese War. The upper level has 3 steps, for the 3-year Liberation War (1946-1949).

In 1981, Fújian People’s Publishing House put out the pictorial, “Carved Inscription and the book of rubbings of Jimei Ao Garden” (《集美鳌园题刻拓本》.

Cool Friezes Turtle Park has a delightful display of Hui’an style stone carvings along both sides of the entrance hall. These 58 friezes depict in stunning detail 58 historical scenes and personages from ancient and modern China. One carving of a political session around a round table (rather like a Socialist’s Last Supper) looks so 3-dimensional and lifelike you can almost hear them debating about how to run us foreign devils off.

Note the art that looks like photographs on stone. Developed in the 1980s by Huì’ān artisans, this unique technique uses a heavy bronze stylus with a very sharp point to make photographic-quality likenesses, depending upon the size, depth and density of the tiny dots. Give a Huì’ān artisan your family photograph and within a few days they’ll mail you a stone likeness.

The park has 653 carvings of blue stone carved by world-renowned Huì’ān craftsman . To prevent Red Guards from destroying them during the Cultural Revolution, locals plastered over them with thick mud.
What Red Guards could not destroy, the weather did. Over the years the salt spray and wind wreaked havoc on the earliest 292 cement sculptures, so in 1992 the Jīměi School Board raised over 1 million RMB to hire Huì’ān artists to replaced the cement sculptures with 20 shadow carvings, 412 recessed carvings and 230 relief carvings. But Jīměi authorities still struggle at protecting the new artwork from the elements (and welcome any advice any of you might have!).
Mr. Tan’s tomb is behind the Liberation monument. After his death on August 12, 1961, Zhou Enlai took charge of his funeral in Beijing, after which his body was taken on a special train to be buried here in the garden.

Tan’s tomb is covered with 13 pieces of green granite. It is shaped like a turtle, which symbolizes longevity and immortality; it is also said that Tan admired the turtle’s earnestness and down-to-earth spirit. A small wall around is tomb has 15 carvings depicting various scenes in Ten’s life.

While you’re in the museum, take in one of the performances (every half hour) of ancient music played upon brass bells, chimes, and zither. The costumes are as intriguing as the music. Best of all, the performance hall is air conditioned, and the show is free.

The museum’s gate attendants require you to exit from a gate clear on the opposite side from where you entered. This forces you to wander the narrow street lined both sides with shops that sell everything from fashionable clothes to VCDs, dried fruits and Chinese herbs, and sundry handicrafts.
Tel: 6064884, 6101713

Adapted from "Amoy Magic--Guide to Xiamen and Fujian"
Jimei Links: Jimei Univ.Tan Kah Kee Biography Jimei Primary SchoolJimei Turtle Garden (鳌园),Returnees Hall(归来堂)Dragon Boat Races(龙舟)Yanping (Delayed Peace) Old Fortress(延平故垒)Jixing Causeway(集杏海堤)Xiamen Bridge