In the early morning, when tourists first step onto the islet of Gulangyu, known in the local dialect as Kulangsu, their first goal is usually to watch the famously gorgeous sunrise from Sunlight Rock.

Then, they smell the food.

Shen's Changfen is one of the shops that tends to distract those visitors. The shop opens at the front of Fujian Road. When visitors find the shop, it is common to see a long queue waiting for service.

Changfen, a common snack usually seen in South China, looks like a long dumpling covered by rice-made peel, with egg, vegetables and meat within. The combined ingredients are steamed within a square steam box.

Shen's Changfen serves the most popular changfen on the islet. The rice peel is so thin that the ingredients inside are visible. The tender peel combined with the chewy shrimp as well as the fresh egg create its basic flavor.

The Chinese sauce, red pepper oil and minced garlic constitute the dish's soul. At the moment the newly cooked changfen is delivered to customers, they know all the efforts to find the place have been worthwhile.

Another must-try on the islet is the oyster pancake. If visitors have enough patience to wander around the alleys on the islet, they may find a group of household restaurants serving the dish.

A local chef with gray hair cooks the pancake on a street. He tosses the oysters, green onions and tapioca into a metal bowl, stirs them with chopsticks and mixes them into a paste.

Then he pours the paste onto the oil on an iron plate with heat underneath and fries it. Once the paste comes into shape, he places an egg onto it and then combines all the ingredients.

Because of the tapioca in the paste, the finished pancake looks like a jelly. The oysters within may remind eaters this is a traditional dish cooked by a real fisherman.

Visitors find that Gulangyu deserves its reputation as a culinary delight.

They can easily spot the seafood restaurants serving curry fish balls, steamed oysters, sate noodles, meat zongzi (glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo), fried sleeve fish and cookies. Visitors can also have a bite of the wax apples and passion fruits sold by the women standing along the streets.

After a good taste of the foods, visitors can also look around the bushes and corners of the streets.

If they are lucky enough, it is very likely they'll see some of the island's famous cats waiting for their share of the food.