Surprise and Delight

A pioneering cruise line is opening the shores of China to intrepid American travelers. Paul Brady hops aboard—and discovers unexpected wonders.

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IN 1902, MORE THAN a century before the Trump tariffs turned global trade upside down, people from around the world were racing to set up shop on the island of Gulangyu. At the time, many of the world’s great powers were opening consulates on this islet near Xiamen, China, eager to stake an economic claim on the Middle Kingdom. On Gulangyu, new arrivals from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and 10 other nations forged a pluralistic society, one that built terraced seaside gardens, winding lanes, and villas that wouldn’t look out of place in the south of France. This unique architectural tradition and cultural legacy is today recognized by UNESCO, which added Gulangyu to its list of World Heritage sites in 2017.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably never heard of Gulangyu or, for that matter, Xiamen, the city of 5 million just an eight-minute ferry ride away. So, for me, it was a revelation to wander the charming pedestrian streets of Gulangyu, taking photos, ducking into tea shops, and shopping for postcards. Everything—every snippet of Chinese I heard, every pagoda and vista I saw in the Shuzhuang Garden—was wildly novel. It felt completely different from anything I’d ever seen before, an epiphany in an increasingly homogenous world.