Weekend Getaway in Shenzhen
“I don’t care if I can’t swim, I just want to see the ocean.”
Me, 3 years after leaving the beautiful Australian beaches, planning a Shenzhen weekend.
Usually when I travel, I head straight for the mountains. I rarely have much interest in using my limited time off to see cities. This was particularly true when I lived in Shanghai, considering my life was lived in one of the biggest cities in the world.
One of my best mates had just moved from Shenzhen and told me that my dreams of swimming in the ocean and sunbaking on a beach were in fact achievable in the Southern coastal city. I didn’t think there was a chance of finding the beach scenes I’m used to from home, but I was optimistic!
We booked our flights, found a cheap hostel in the OCT Loft Art Zone and packed our bikinis.
I had passed through this province, Guangdong, in 2016 when I first visited China. My visit, however, involved waiting for my next train in a giant railway station. I was still processing the overwhelming size of everything and the unbelievable masses of people everywhere. Little did I know, beyond the sky scrapers were stunning nature scenes.
I arrived in Shenzhen before the others and was immediately covered in sweat. The humidity and heat very much resemble home. I left my things at the hostel and immediately headed for the water.
The initial shock was that walking actually took effort. Hills! Shanghai doesn’t know what hills are, and here I was huffing and puffing on my stroll. Thanks to the hostel proximity, I soon reached the famous Window of the World. My mind was fixed on reaching the coastline, so I persisted to the Seaworld area.
Hong Kong sighting!
Shenzhen borders Hong Kong, just across the river. Though this is a special administrative region of China, during Covid times it functioned seemingly as a separate country. This meant that crossing the bridge wasn’t an option, but it was still cool to see it across the water.
The water dividing the two areas is, well, not blue. But I could smell the salt in the air and, for someone who hadn’t been coastal for so long, it was awesome! I ended up walking 20km total that day just enjoying the sunshine.
BEACH TIME
Finally the time had come for me to see what Shenzhen beaches had to offer! After a nice breakfast in the Art District by the hostel, we got in a taxi headed for Dameisha Beach. To my surprise, the journey took less than an hour. To my even BIGGER surprise, there was an entry fee! For a beach!
Now folks, I come from Australia… we don’t pay for beaches. However, this is China, and I was having ocean withdrawals. Turns out, we ended up having the useless foreigner pass (the app we scanned didn’t recognize passports) and got in for free. Yippee!
So Shenzhen beaches? Not too shabby.
We set up under a tent (this we payed for) and I headed straight for the water. I was in heaven. The temperature was perfect and it was so clean I ALMOST felt like I was back at home for a moment.
This is a perfect beach spot if you’re restricted on time and need that salt, sand and sun fix. However, if you have the time, there are plenty of beaches for swimming, surfing and coastal mountain hikes in Eastern Guangdong (a few hours away).
A local secret shared with an outsider
The next day, my Shenzhen friends took me to their well hidden waterfall paradise. First, we got a taxi to Wutong Mountain. From there, it’d be tricky to explain how we found the waterfall (plus, it’s a secret).
Geared with a lot of beers, we hiked through the forest, veered off a path somewhere and climbed over some rocks when suddenly, we were in a large clearing. There lay in front of me a clear creek flowing from a fresh waterfall, and we had it all to ourselves.
I couldn’t help but feel like I was back at home in Queensland.
The day ended with dinner and drinks downtown. I found the Shenzhen was very spread out, and getting to places usually meant a taxi ride. We found ourselves in Cocopark (Futian) and Luohu, but no doubt there are countless areas for entertainment.
