Recently my good friend’s father passed away in cancer (my condolences Kai) so on Saturday me and Yini headed south to meet him up and comfort him in these hard times. We arrived in his hometown of Tianzhong in the evening and spent a couple of hours with him. Knowing that he felt comparatively good, we said good bye and went out to find a hotel. We ended up in a kind of motel where I promptly burned my lip on the what looked  like a drinking fountain but turned out to be a hot water dispenser. Not the nicest of evenings perhaps but no matter.

Thanks too Yini’s skills with Google, we found an interesting place to go on Sunday.  We woke up early and drove south for about an hour down to Dongshi harbor where we booked tickets for a boat ride. Since we had about two hours until the boat would leave,  we explored the nearby area for a bit.

Nearby wetlands, said to be good for bird watching but no birds.

  • Yini in a seaside park
  • A man making paint brushes from leaves
  • Fresh buds on some kind of pine tree

Time for departure rolled around and we got on the boat. We sailed on calm water, passed several oyster farms and various fishermen, all while having lunch. We threw all biodegradable trash out the window because it was fish food according to the boat captain. After about an hour we arrived at our goal, the moving island. It is not so much an island as a gigantic sandbar that grows, shrinks and even wanders along the coast at a slow paces, all from the force of tides and currents. There is not much on the island, no vegetation, no houses or anything, just a couple broken fishing rafts and other bamboo constructions. It might not seem like anything worth visiting, but the desolate nature of the place makes it feel kind of adventurous to wander around on it.

On the way out
  • Looking back to shore
  • Passing a small speedboat on the glittering waves
  • Passing some oyster fishermen near shore
Getting off the boat

The first steps on the moving island

  • The wreckage of a fishing raft
  • Yini wading across a low part of the island
  • Happy together

Going towards the only real structure on the island

  • It’s a small type of house on stilts, apparently some people used to live there for more than 50 years
  • The interior of the house
  • Google maps does not recognize that I am standing on solid ground
  • A small fishing boat stranded on the island
  • This ramshackle hut is apparently a self proclaimed republic  
  • The flag of the republic of Yunjianan 

Sadly we only go one hour to look around, probably plenty for other people but I would have liked to get more time. It was definitely worth a visit.