Jimei Study Village, Xiamen

Xiamen in Southern China is just over four hours by air from Kuala Lumpur.

The first place we visited was Jimei, a coastal rural village which boasts beautiful buildings of Chinese design housing elementary and middle schools as well as a university, all of which were founded by Mr Tan Kah Kee, an oversea Chinese who returned to his motherland to help in its development. He believed that education plays a very important role in human development hence the founding of Jimei Study Village as it is known.

The picture below shows the elementary school in Jimei Study Village.

Below is the Middle or Secondary School housed in the NanShing Building, wwhich was onced used as a lighthouse to guide the fishermen home.

Here are sculptures of students in the school garden.

To commemorate this distinguished personage, there is a garden called Turtle Garden in which his tomb lies.There are intricate stone carvings on two walls, one of which depicts the history of ancient China

and the other, the history of modern China.

Apart from these walls there is also the Liberation Monument behind which lies Mr Tan’s tomb.

His tomb is actually in the shape of a turtle’s back. This depicts his humility and his return to his roots in his homeland to “give back” to his community.

Mr Tan’s personal collection of ancient relics are on permanent display in the Overseas Chinese Museum in another part of Xiamen.