Gouqi Island: A Blue Remnant Dream in the Depths of the East China Sea

The Persistence of Shengsi Ferry Tickets

My obsession with reaching Gouqi Island began with a single photograph — above cerulean waters, a white fishing village climbed in terraced layers up the hillside, distant islets hovered on the horizon like half-formed thoughts, and the whole island seemed caught in a blue dream forgotten in the depths of the East China Sea. From that moment, the words "Gouqi Island" became the most stubborn entry on my travel list, like a shell that the tide washes over again and again but can never bleach away, embedded firmly in the sand of memory.

Getting to Gouqi Island, however, proved far more arduous than I had imagined. Shengsi ferry tickets are notoriously difficult to secure, especially during the July-August peak season, when the queue at Shenjiawan Pier can wind from the ticket window all the way to the parking lot. I spent three days hovering over the online booking system in the small hours, refreshing the page countless times, and finally snagged a ticket on the third second after sales opened. From Shanghai's Shenjiawan Passenger Center, the speedboat takes ninety minutes to reach Lizhushan Pier, then a bus transfer to Xiaocaiyuan Pier, and finally a ferry to Gouqi Island. As the vessel entered the inner waterways of the Shengsi archipelago, the sea began a wondrous transformation — from the murky yellow of coastal waters to jade-green, then to a deep, intoxicating cobalt blue, as though the ocean were peeling away the disguises of the mundane world layer by layer, reverting to its truest color.

Some places require you to cross enough distance before they reveal their authentic selves. Gouqi Island is one of them — hidden in the folds of the East China Sea, at the easternmost reach of the Shengsi archipelago, behind curtain after curtain of tides, lifting its veil only for those who persist.

Sunrise at Dawang Beach

Morning on Gouqi Island begins at Dawang Beach. This is the island's largest stretch of sand, facing due east — a perfect vantage for sunrise. At half past four, dragged from sleep by my alarm, I stumbled along a coastal path in the darkness toward the beach. A faint line of pearl-white had just appeared along the horizon, and a thin veil of mist hung over the water, rendering the distant islets as blurry silhouettes. A few early-rising photographers had already set up their tripods, waiting in the pre-dawn stillness.

At twelve minutes past five, a stroke of tangerine appeared on the horizon, as though someone had spilled diluted paint along the seam where sea meets sky. The color spread swiftly — from orange to gold, from gold to white — and the mist above the water was tinted pale pink, as if gently kissed by the nascent sun. The moment the sun crested the horizon, golden light flooded the entire beach, and the tide lapped gently at the sand at my feet, leaving lacework borders of foam. In the distance, fishing boats glided out of the harbor in the dawn glow, their masts tracing slender arcs against the gilded sea. The scene was so hushed and solemn it felt as though the entire world were being created anew in this very instant.

The Green Fairy Tale of the Abandoned Village

The most astonishing sight on Gouqi Island is not the blue sea or the clear sky, but a village swallowed by green. Houtouwan, the abandoned village, was once one of the most prosperous fishing settlements on the island, home to over three thousand residents at its peak. Beginning in the 1990s, residents gradually relocated to the island's central area, and Houtouwan was slowly abandoned. Then nature took over.

When I descended the overgrown stone steps into Houtouwan, the scene before me unfolded like a green fairy tale — dense ivy and climbing vines had crept from the ground all the way to the rooftops, encasing every stone house in a green cocoon. Hundreds of dwellings covered the hillside in an unbroken cascade, vines spilling over the eaves like waterfalls, window frames and doorframes serving as trellises for the greenery. Only the mottled walls and faded wooden doors still hinted faintly at the lives once lived within. Standing on the opposite hillside and gazing across, the whole of Houtouwan looked like a miniature city submerged beneath a green tide — the vines its ocean, the stone houses its reefs, and time its most patient sculptor.

Humans spent decades building a village; nature spent twenty years returning it to green. This is not decay but a grander form of growth — when people departed, the earth embraced those stones and walls in the gentlest way possible, weaving them back into the never-ending cycle of life.

Rocky Coast at Shanhai Wonder

On the western side of Gouqi Island lies a site called Shanhai Wonder — the island's highest coastal viewpoint. From Dawang Village, a winding mountain path leads upward for about twenty minutes to this observation platform perched on the edge of a cliff. Standing here, the entire coastline of Gouqi Island spreads before your eyes — the silver-white crescent of Dawang Beach to the east, the terraced fishing village in the middle, the rugged rocky coast to the west, and beyond it all, the boundless East China Sea, its waters a heart-aching deep blue contrasting sharply with the emerald shallows near shore.

On neap-tide days, the rocky coast reveals its richest layers. After the water recedes, vast platforms of brown reef rock emerge, carpeted with seaweed, shells, and tide pools. In the pools, tiny fish and shrimp dart through the shallow water, sea anemones extend their tentacles from crevices, and hermit crabs trudging their borrowed shells slowly across the bottom. I crouched beside one tide pool and observed for a full half hour; in this miniature world of less than one square meter, life flourished with astonishing density and diversity. Looking up, I saw fishing boats far out at sea, bobbing gently on the swells, their white hulls vivid against the deep blue — like a few lines of white poetry written by the ocean on a sheet of blue stationery.

Gouqi Island Hidden Gem Guide

Gouqi Island is one of the most unspoiled islands in the Shengsi archipelago. Though its fame has grown in recent years, the difficulty of getting there and limited visitor capacity have preserved its relatively undiscovered character. The island's rhythm is slow, the fishermen's way of life is traditional, and the color of the sea is pure — this uncommercialized authenticity is Gouqi Island's most precious quality. Here are some practical travel suggestions.

As evening fell, I sat on the rocks at Shanhai Wonder and watched the last sliver of sunlight slowly withdraw from the horizon. Night arrives quickly on Gouqi Island — the sky transitions from tangerine to deep violet in less than twenty minutes. When the final trace of twilight vanished, a canopy of stars unfurled overhead, the Milky Way spanning the heavens like a pale-blue river, its reflection shimmering on the calm sea below. In the distance, the fishing village's lights glimmered like amber gems scattered across the hillside. In that moment, I finally understood why people call Gouqi Island a blue remnant dream in the depths of the East China Sea — because everything here is so impossibly beautiful, like a dream you never wish to wake from.