JINSHAWAN BEACH SHENZHEN

Three kilometres of golden sand surrounded by wooded hills with a vista across the waves to Peng Chau in front of us and the mountains of the New Territories beyond. We love Jinshawan. Just sitting in the shade of the casuarinas on a hot summer’s day, with an occasional dip in the clean water, or a stroll along the beach under the coconut palms is a true pleasure of a type rarely met. At dusk as the sun sets behind the mountains, a red and orange glow suffuses the sands of the beach and we are left in no doubt as to the origin of the name Golden Sands Bay.

An army of uniform-clad Hakka ladies with besom brooms is constantly employed keeping the beach clean. Sadly their job is made harder by the fact that public beach tidiness is at a level that used to be experienced in Hong Kong twenty years ago. Hopefully this will improve with time.

The beach has a shark net, clean toilet facilities, a kiosk and rental facilities for water sports including sailing boats, windsurfers, diving equipment etc. There is a Hong Kong style barbecue area. However there is a local specialty cooked at the barbeque pits, which are well worth a try. It is called Yao chicken, a chicken wrapped in foil then encased in mud and barbecued. The result is something like beggar’s chicken. For us, it was one of the juiciest chicken with a superb taste that we hadn’e experienced for a long while.

Further along the bay from Jinsha Wan is Xiasha Beach. This has the distinction of being two kilometres long and therefore one of the longest beaches in Shenzhen. It has a shark net and torturous rocks that we didn’t find too appealing. The City Government has a blueprint for tourist development for the beach, until that day comes, its current state strikes us as neglected. Unless you are adventurous and have already been to all the other beaches, we recommend the others and not this one at this time you won’t be missing much.

We stay at the Golden Bay Resort. It probably just scrapes three and a half stars but it is clean, comfortable and set in well-kept gardens right on the beach. We get to Jinshawan on bus 360 to Dapeng $14 and minibus 966 to Jinshawan $2. The local taxi drivers are brigands and will try to charge you $20 to go the mile or so downhill from Dapeng to Jinshawan. Even the motorbike taxis want $15 to sit you on the pillion seat. If you know some Mandarin and can drive a hard bargain, you may be able to get a ride for less.

Address: Nan’ao, Longgang Entry to the beach is $10.

Website: http://www.shenzhenparty.com/sightseeing/beaches/golden-bay-beach