Zhuhai
From World travel guide
Zhuhai (珠海) is a city in Guangdong Province, China, just across the border from the former Portuguese colony of Macau.
Contents |
Understand
Zhuhai was a just group of fishing villages until as late the 1970s, but after it was declared a Special Economic Zone, it quickly developed and is now a city of a million or so.
Get in
- You can walk across the border from Macau.
- Zhuhai has a large modern airport with connections to many Chinese cities, but not many international flights.
- Zhuhai is about 150km from the provincial capital of Guangzhou. There are good road links between the two cities. There are several busses from Guangzhou. One is found at the travel agency on the East side of the Garden Hotel. 60 RMB, an hour and a half.
- There are currently (late 2005) no trains to Zhuhai, but a Guangzhou-Zhuhai light rail is under construction that will cut travel time there to 55 minutes.
- There are busses to most nearby cities, including Shenzhen (cheaper than the ferry), and overnight busses to Guilin, Xiamen, Zhanjiang and Beihai. One bus station is near the Gongbei border, off to your right as you leave the border shopping center. Another is in Xiangzhou.
Get around
Zhuhai is quite spread out. The terrain is coastal plain broken up by mountains or, seen from the sea, a series of bays and headlands. There are many clumps of development separated by hills, often parkland.
Within any district, you can walk or take a taxi for 10 RMB or a bit more.
To move between districts, use busses. These are 1 to 3 RMB, depending how far they go and whether they are air-conditioned.
The double decker sightseeing bus bus goes more-or-less everywhere, Gongbei to Jin Ding for 3 RMB. Padded seats and good air conditioning make it a lot more comfortable than city busses for long trips. Last run is about 7 PM.
Districts
This ignores most of the Zhuhai SEZ, the large Western area, to cover only places along the coast which might be of some interest to tourists.
These are listed North-to-South. Few tourists visit the places on the first list:
- Jinding, village whose main attraction is an excellent Pizza place run by an Englishman
- reach via 3, 10 or sightseeing bus
- various universities
- Beijing Normal U and Beijing Institute of Technology, on a side road just before Jinding, 69 bus from town or 70 from Jinding
- Harbin Institute of Technology and Zhong Shan U, on main road: 3, 10, 69 or sightseeing bus
- Zhuhai auto race track, site of various GP events (turn off next to Harbin I of T)
- Software park: high-tech companies
- Tangjiawan, moderate size town; good street food late at night
Continuing South, you get the main city areas:
- Xiangzhou: Government offices, residential districts.
- Downtown Xiangzhou is the area Zhuhai people mainly go shopping in. Several big department stores, some bars and restaurants.
- Jida: lots of offices, high end hotels
- Gongbei: the main tourist area:
- cheap hotels
- lots of cheap clothing, electronics, and souvenirs
- tiny bars on the street, often with Macau customers
- prostitutes and pickpockets
- "bar street" (jiu ba jie) on Northeast side, one block in from coast
Talk
Because many people came here from other parts of China, Mandarin is more common than in nearby cities. Cantonese is also widely spoken.
See
The lovers road along the coast line. Several nice parks, some are on the hills, some next to the sea.
Do
Take the sightseeing bus out to Jin Ding, maybe stop there for pizza.
Other possibilities:
- swimming and sunbathing on the beach of several islands (50 min by boat from zhuhai)
- watch motor racing at the Zhuhai international circuit.
- receive expert instruction and spend a half hour on the track in a formula car at the race circuit for 1500 RMB
- golf, off to the inland side of the road North of town
Buy
Gongbei
There is a huge underground shopping complex right at the Gongbei border, a couple of hundred shops, many with goods targeted to Hong Kong and other tourists -- clothing, jade and other jewellery, crafts including a lot of Tibetan stuff, consumer electronics, CDs and DVDs at the usual Chinese price, around a dollar US. Of course these are mainly unlicensed copies. A few foreign buyers have had them blocked by customs when returning home.
The main street that goes straight North from the border has both many small shops and several large shopping complexes with everything from cheap Chinese goods to trendy pricey international brands. The complex on the right with a McDonalds in it is probably the largest. There is a store on the left before McD specialising in Chinese goods for tourists: silk, pottery and handicrafts.
Lotus Road is a pedestrians only street, parallel to the main street mentioned above and a block East of it. There are several tiny bars, booths right out on the street with a few stools on each side; many Macau folk come here for cheap drinks. There are also lots of clothing stores, many with quite good prices (though perhaps dubious quality). Be cautious here. Pickpockets, beggars and prostitutes abound.
Jida
The main drag in Jida has a large shopping complex, about two city blocks of department stores.
There is also a big store with a sign "State-owned Duty-free Foreign Currency Store".
Xiangzhou
Xiangzhou has plenty of shops, generally less tourist-oriented than Jida or Gongbei. The main street has the Japanese department store Jusco and a number of other shops including several fairly large shopping complexes along the street North of Jusco.
Eat
wide variety of food: hu nan spicy food everywhere,Yun nan noodle, west china dumplings, several thai food restaurant, etc,etc...
Drink
There are many bars on "bar street" or "jiu ba jie" one block in from the coast a 20-minute walk Northeast of the Gongbei border. Some, particularly Cohiba, are expat hangouts.
Just in front of the Jusco store in Xiangzhou are a couple of tiny outdoor bars with good beer (the Phillipine brand San Miquel) at low prices, 6 RMB a pint.
Sleep
There must be at least a dozen hotels within walking distance of the Gongbei border, mostly either cheap or mid-range (170RMB-400RMB/night). You can bargain the prices and normally they have "special prices", which is 50% of the listed price.
- Friendship Hotel, opposite the Gongbei border. If you are at the border, facing town, it is to the left of the bus station.
- Jiuzhou Hotel, find the road that goes North along the East side of the bus station. Hotel about a hlaf block along it on the right. As of december 2005, sign in window says 120 RMB.
Splurge
High end hotels include:
- Grand Bay View Hotel, Gongbei
- Harbour View hotel, Jida
- Holiday Inn, Jida
The first two actually have nice views, and the Harbour View is next to the only decent beach in downtown Zhuhai.
Get out
Zhuhai has several islands, accessible by ferry. Some have uncrowded beaches.
One of the biggest Chinese antique furniture market area is located just 30 mins from Zhuhai city in Guhe - Zhongshan. You can take taxi (30-50RMB) or bus (2-4RMB) to get there.
External links
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