Koxinga’s Well

Koxinga’s Well is located in Yanping Park in the south of the Sunlight Rock on Gulangyu Island, near Longtoushan Village and the Relic Site of Navy Drill. It was built to provide drinking water for soldiers during the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasties when Ming general Zheng Chenggong established a military presence on Gulangyu Island. Because Emperor Longwu of the Southern Ming Dynasty bestowed on him the royal surname Zhu, local residents, out of respect, started to refer to him as Koxinga (Literally, Lord of the Imperial Surname). The part of the well above the ground is circular and originally consisted of three rocks in different shapes. Its inner and outer diameters are 0.39 and 0.58 meters, respectively. The wall of the well is made of long blocks of granite while the existing circular fence around the well, which was built in modern times, is made of concrete. Legend has it that it is a well carried on the back of a hill, that it can be made clean by three wipes, and that there are three uncertainties about it.