First of all, we should point out that there are sometimes a number of towns, in China, with the same name.  Kind of like there being Lebanon's (I come from Lebanon, PA) in forty-eight out of the fifty U.S. states.  The Nan Ao that we are talking about, in this entry, is south east of Shenzhen, on a small finger that stretches down from the eastern corner of Shenzhen.

Nan Ao is a good starting point and hub around which to start your tour of incredible beaches, surrounded by mountains, and peppered with islands, whose sizes range from a few meters to miles around.  To get there, go to Shenzhen, and take a bus, hire a car, or drive if you have a car.  Although not a large town and mostly dedicated to fishing rather than tourism, it has an adequate smattering of the stores you need plus souvenir and seafood, both fresh and dried, restaurants, and outdoor markets; it even has a video karaoke bar, upstairs in one of the buildings. There is a main east-west street, in the south of Nan Ao, called Nan Ao Jie.  It is a few blocks south of the harbor where the picture, below, was taken.  It has a book store, grocery stores, pharmacy, and coffee house, in the center of Nan Au Jie is an alleyway (north) with outdoor market that leads to another cross street with shops with dried seafood and baubles.  In the area there are also restaurants and bars.

  

Nan Ao seems to come in two sections, a north part and a south part.  The part that we explored was the south.

South of Nan Ao are Xi Chong and Dong Chong, two lovely and relatively undiscovered beaches.  You can get a taxi or motorcycle taxi to the beaches from Nan Ao.  On your way out of town when you first hit the country roads, look down, there is an outdoor restaurant that grows their own sweet potatoes and is a nice place to lunch.  Then, be ready to travel over narrow winding mountain roads for about 10 miles.  On the way up the mountain, there is a turnoff on the left to the east coast of the finger; there is a police booth there as a marker (more on the east coast, later).  The views up the mountain road are dramatic, but you need to pay attention to the road, too, because it is tricky and narrow.  On the way down the mountain, there is a fork that goes left to Dong Ching, right to Xi Chong.  First, we go right to Xi Chong.  Before you get to Xi Chong, there is a small walled village that we did not get to explore, but it looked pretty cool and might have a large hotel.  Just past a small school on the right, there is a turnoff to the center of Xi Chong.

Of all of the places we visited, in the area, Xi Chong is our favorite.  It has a stretch of beach about 2 to 3 miles long, nestled between two promontories.  You can stay in a little bungalow along the beach or even just rent a tent and camp out on the beach.  The bungalows range from tiny to comfortable single room to two-bedroom suites, and the prices range from about Y150 to Y700 (about US$20-100).  We stayed at Xian Ren Zhang Du Jia Zhong Xin (Cactus Holiday Inn) several times.  It is mustard-colored single-room bungalows with adequate space, but we have not seen all of the places; just happen to like the place because of its setting and quaintness.

  

You can just stay in Xi Chong the whole time and relax and enjoy the peaceful scenic beach.  There are plenty of restaurants up and down the beach, or you can barbecue your own things in a bbq area, as the one shown in the picture.  You can take a ride in a small boat around the small island off shore or get dropped off there for awhile, or you can go to a larger island, which is several miles wide and several miles offshore, and explore.  Boat rentals for either are reasonably priced: the quick ride around the small island in a boat for six is fast, bumpy and thrilling (white knuckle ride).  There are also some restaurants, hidden along the mountain road, if you want to explore a bit.  There are restaurants, bars and a café, in Nan Ao, along with two "seafood streets": one in town, and one, a few miles north of town.  This trip, we chose the latter.  Just a few miles above the northern part of Nan Ao, there is a turnoff marked Shui Tou.  Down that road, a bit, to a stoplight, then, a left and quick right brings you to the Shui Tou seafood street.  On one side there are restaurants; on the other side, places that sell fresh (live) seafood in small tanks.  You choose a restaurant (we chose Xing Chang, based on recommendations), in about the middle.  Then, you take it back to the restaurant to have it cooked up.  We had varieties of seafood that we have not even seen, living in Guangzhou, which has a huge outdoor seafood market.

 

If you are looking for an even smaller beach area or a smaller one with a larger hotel, then, you should turn left on the downside of the mountain road from Nan Ao to the two Chong's and go to Dong Chong (xi means west and dong means east).  It has a large hotel, which we are told has merged with the several condo-like units across the small cove.  It also has an outdoor and indoor restaurant and bar.  There are some small shops up the street from the hotel and a bar and restaurants on the marshes in back of the beach.  Better for those who don't like long romantic walks on the beach.

  

This trip to the Nan Ao area, we also decided to look on the east coast of the finger.  You can cut across to that side on a road near the bottom of the mountain road out of Nan Ao to the "Chongs".  After you get over there follow roads south along the coast road.  In a few miles you will see a yacht club on your way down a mountain, on the south side of a fairly large bay.  Next, you will see a small beach area where, more than likely, people are having wedding pictures shot by the sea.  Then, you will come to the quaint little village of Yang Mei Keng, which has a few cute outdoor restaurants, shops and a sheltered marina.

  

Past Yang Mei Keng, the coast road becomes dicey with no guard rail and occasional missing chunks, and, thereafter, it turns into a dirt road up the mountain, just before the last promontory, Yang Mei Shan (Yang Mei means raspberry; shan means mountain), that you can reach by automobile road.  At the end of the road (it still continues but for bicycles only), there is a mountain condo resort, Lu Zui Shan Zhuang, in a nice setting and with a stairway going down to a small rocky cove.
 
  

One final place that you should not miss, when you are in the Nan Au area is Da Peng, which is north of Nan Au.  You can even make it a stop on your way back to Shenzhen, as we did.  It is named after a mythical bird-god.  Da Peng is an old walled fort city, dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.), and for a few Yuan you can go inside and walk around the old walled part of the city, which is over 600 years old and has been preserved.  

  

On our way back to Guangzhou, we stopped in to a newer beach area in Shenzhen, in the east, called Da Mei Xia.  It had a lot of people, but the beach was clean and had trashcans all around to keep it that way.  You can go para-sailing, there, or ride on wave runners.  The little village, itself, is done up quite nicely and even has some very fancy hotels, a tower and a road up one of the promontories for viewing the area. 


  

It is a man made beach.  The project was started ten years ago, and condos and other buildings are still going up.  We only stopped to walk the beach, drink coconuts, and tour up the promontory road, so we don't have a lot of information to give you.  However, we can see that it is also partly a statement about China's mad rush to build and modernize.  The viewing tower is currently closed to visitors, for example, for some reason, and the large statues of winged people, which are the "symbols" of the beach, have the paint already pealing off.

Here are some names, numbers and other details to help you get around:

1. Cactus Hotel (Xian Ren Zhang Du Jia Zhong Xin): 0755 (SZ area code) 84421220
2. Taxis (you can get one, even, to take you on the hour-or-so long trip from the train station, in Shenzhen, to Xi Ching for about Y200 = $30): 13691995937 / 137 98424293 (cell in Guangdong)
3. Lu Zui Shan Zhuang condo resort: 0755 (SZ area code) 25399195
4. Bus from Shenzhen to Nan Ao: #E11 (air-conditioned and faster) or take the local bus #360 Yin Hu Bus station (Qi Che Zhan).
5. If you take the bus to Nan Ao, just find Nan Ao Jie, and you'll be mobbed by taxi drivers wanting to take you further on.

I always like to travel the back roads.  It's more fun to just get a general idea from the map and navigate by the sun.  It's more fun to get lost, and you usually find places that few have gone but which are the true treasures of your travels.  So, use our knowledge as a guide, and discover some new places on your own.  Although we have discovered much, and we have shared much of that with you, in this blog post, there is still plenty for you to discover on your own, and you can find your own treasures.  But hurry!  The Chinese government wants to build up and promote the area as a new tourist area and destination.  After that happens, it just will not be the same.

Traveling, in China, especially, in areas, like this one, where they have seen few foreigners, can be difficult, if you let it be.  No one speaks anything other than Chinese, and even some people speak only Cantonese.  When I first moved to China, four years ago, I knew no Chinese, but I have found that a smile and a playful manner can get you very far.  I have lived and traveled in a number of countries, and I have found that a few basic words and phrases can get you by in most situations: hello (ni hao, Mand; lei ho, Cant), good bye (tcai jian, Mand; bye bye, Cant), please (ching, Mand; mgoi, Cant)and thank you (xie xie, Mand; mgoi, Cant) are a good start.  A small Chinese dictionary is helpful because you can show people Chinese words, in your dictionary, if you are having difficulty finding or getting something.  You can download some basic Chinese words and phrases from the In-Country China part of our website.  It's even better, if you take along a friend who speaks the language (plus it's much more fun for two to share).  Most people have calculators on which they will show you the price of things, which are normally not on the thing, itself.  Not knowing the language can even make it more fun as you play with people trying to figure things out.  At the seafood restaurants, you can just pick your food from a tank, so you won't go hungry.  Also, when traveling, in China, don't think in dollars or euros: one Yuan buys you abput as much, here, as a dollar or a euro buy you at home, even though thinking in dollars will make it seems cheap.

On the map: Up is north. This is the bulb of the finger that has all of the beaches.  Da Peng is a few miles up the finger from there. Shenzhen is about 40 miles, up to the end of the finger, then, west along the coast.  On this bulb of the finger, the red star is Nan Ao. At the bottom, the left orange area is Xi Chong, and the one on the right is Dong Chong.  The jut on the east coast is Yang Mei Shan (Raspberry Hill).  The bulb is about 15 miles wide, but the winding mountain roads make each trip longer, more awe-inspiring, and more thrilling.



You can also read out recent article "Getting Arround in China" on Ezinearticles at http://ezinearticles.com/?Getting-Around-in-China&id=2324265

Happy Traveling, Craig Mattoli, CEO, Red Hill Capital Corp., Delware, owner of Leona Craig Art Gallery, Guangzhou www.leonacraig.com (C) 2009. All rights reserved.