We decided to get there just before lunch, have a McDonalds lunch (our first time in china and a treat for the students) and tour the island. The ferry over is very crowded and gives a good example of how the chinese are all push and elbows when it comes to getting somewhere. You don't pay for the ferry over, but you pay for it coming back - 8 kuai or a little more than a dollar. There is an admission ticket that allows you a ride on the skyway, entry to the aquarium and other museums plus the aviary - I think it was about 30 kuai but I'll check on that when I find the ticket!
Many of the buildings are dilapidated - they used to be the embassy enclave of Xiamen - but some are in the process of being rehabilitated. A few have been turned into museums so you can see what it used to be like.
We walked through another temple and up a long path to the skyway where we went over to the other peak of the island. 
Brett, Goran, Kat and Sebastien hiked up to the very top of Sunlight Rock to see the view - Alex and Mummy went back to the temple to sit in the shade, drink some cool water and eat a snack. Here is Xiamen (part of the downtown business/financial district) in the background and the island in the foreground.
There we saw the piano museum (the island is not just well-known because it bans cars, but also because of the number of pianos there) and headed on to the aviary. Although extensive, the aviary was a bit ho-hum - the cages were quite small and the parrots that were out, chained to their perches, were showing telltale signs of stress (plucked chest feathers etc) which took away from it. I did find an interesting sign though- not your typical western anti-littering sign.
We then walked up to the large statue on Fuding Rock that we see from our apartment building - it is a statue of Zheng Cheng Gong who defeated the Dutch in taking Taiwan in 1662 and is 15.7m high. We easily found our apartment building across the water - it is pink and white striped after all!
We walked along the stone boadwalk 
and then headed back to the ferry - here is the group minus Alex who insisted on standing next to me while I took the photo.
On the way back to the ferry we passed some more sculpture (Driving away the Invaders by the Cane Shield Army - 13m long bronze sculpture) and Alex enjoyed trying to pick up the sword of the great hero.
There are many other things to do on the island - for example an aquarium - but we know that we'll be going there often so we took it very slow and concentrated on stuff we thought our guests would like to see.We took a taxi home and this is a shot of the back seat of the cab. There is a seatbelt in this one, but the seat covers (purple) are such that the buckle on the seat is under the cover and the belt hasn't got anything to snap into then. Alex enjoyed sitting on Goran's lap - we squeezed in the four adults and two children - I'm in the front seat which thankfully has a seatbelt and Brett is holding Sebastien next to Kat.
Our apartment complex was in the mood for New Year and had celebratory lanterns and signs up and we knew it must have been special because...
...the fountain was playing!
We had to go and pack because the next day we were flying to Beijing for four days.
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