In 1898, the Guangxu Emperor, Tan Si and others launched the Wushu Reform Law, but within a hundred days, the reform failed, and the sixth person of the Restoration Zhishi Tan Sitong, Kang Guangren, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guang was killed, known in history as the "Six Gentlemen of Wushu", Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled to foreign countries, and Kang Youwei began to travel in all directions.
Six years later, Kang Youwei came to Switzerland, and according to Swiss records, Kang Youwei was the third Chinese to come to Switzerland. Kang Youwei was attracted by the Swiss style, he has been to many countries, but also seen many beautiful scenery, but only Switzerland, let Kang Youwei have the idea of staying.
He wrote in his travelogue: "Sweden's hundreds of billions of islands, buildings and terraces in the middle of countless moons... There are islands outside the lake outside the island, and the mountain is the city of Zhongshan... Want to live in vain. Kang Youwei spent 1.5 million yuan to buy a small island in the southeast coastal area of Skaeder, and built a Chinese-style garden on the island, named "Beihai Caotang".
At that time, the economy of Switzerland was not very developed, and many areas were not used for tourism, so it was still possible to spend 1.5 million yuan to buy an island in Switzerland, not to mention that Kang Youwei's contacts were still very wide, and now spending 1.5 million yuan to buy an island is probably a fool's dream.
However, Kang Youwei lived on the island for only 3 years, in 1907, the royalists held a congress in New York, as the organizer Kang Youwei naturally left Switzerland for the United States, what is particularly stated here is that Kang Youwei claimed to hold the emperor's edict after the failure of the reform (in fact, the Guangxu Emperor wrote to Yang Rui, Kang Youwei believed that there was no proof of death), organized the royalist society, and collected wealth everywhere, so Kang Youwei could spend 1.5 million yuan to buy an island on the way to escape.
After Kang Youwei left Switzerland, Switzerland took back the island, that is to say, the island bought by Kang Youwei was later returned to Switzerland, and now the "Beihai Caotang" established by Kang Youwei has ceased to exist under the erosion of the cold wind of the sea, but the local Chinese surnamed Kang are happy to introduce the island to others, and call it "Kang Youwei Island".
Speaking of Kang Youwei, Kang Youwei did not return to China until the year after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, in 1917 Kang Youwei and the Beiyang warlord Zhang Xun supported Puyi to ascend the throne, not only was he crusaded and declared defeated, Kang Youwei fled to Shanghai, lived in seclusion in Maoshan for a long time, and later Kang Youwei bought a villa on the bank of Huiquan Bay in Qingdao, titled his house "Tianyou Garden", and spent his old age here.
Kang Youwei's children also lived in Tianyou Garden when they were studying in Qingdao, Kang Youwei also wrote many poems for the beautiful scenery of Qingdao, at this time he probably did not remember that he had purchased an island in a foreign country, there was "Beihai Caotang", on March 29, 1927, Kang Youwei went to his hometown in Guangdong as a guest, and drank a cup of lemon black tea after returning home, suddenly abdominal pain was unbearable, and invited a doctor to his home for treatment.
A Japanese doctor believed kang youwei was suffering from food poisoning, and the next day, kang youwei died. Kang Youwei's life was beautiful, he did many disgraceful things (accumulating wealth and lust), but his participation in the change of law, in some aspects of his ideas, was supported by the world, and he has always had mixed evaluations of Kang Youwei.
Kang Youwei was born in a bureaucratic landlord family, and later also accepted Western ideas, in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min dynasty, Kang Youwei's image was very full, so the Kang surname Chinese regarded "Kang Youwei Island" as home, and Sweden intended to develop tourism.