"xiaomeisha beach" Personal Page by zephyrgurl108

the sunday beach trip to xiaomeisha, touted as one of shenzhen's best beaches, pushed through after all. after a rainy friday, i woke up to a sunshiny saturday and thought.."hmmm" there's a good chance it will be like this tomorrow. but as the rest of the pinoy gang already cancelled, i was left without a beach buddy. ester wanted to go but couldn't because of a "girlie problem." i also invited megan, my chinese officemate who lives in shenzhen. she immediately accepted the invite.

so sunday morning, i was up by 7:00, left for luo hu around 8, met megan in gangxia at 9:30 and arrived at the beach at 11 AM. zoran and vida from serbia and pilar and tom from spain and germany, respectively, were already there. an hour or so later, elizabeth and matthew from mexico and france, respectively, came and joined us.

xiaomeisha, is one of the twin beaches located in the yantian district of shenzhen. it is one of the top eight scenic spots in sz ((http://www.china.org.cn/english/travel/99662.htm). to get there, we had to take the bus 103 which dropped us off at the gate of xiaomeisha beach. fare costs RMB9, takes more than an hour going there from luohu. the bus will pass by dameisha first, then 10 minutes later, to xiaomeisha.

unlike "d" which is free to the public, "x" charges a 20RMB fee. the difference? the only thing i can think of is that you get more beach space. the facilities like shower room, changing room, etc. are a big letdown or a big yuck. i walked around and saw stores that sell swimwear and some uninviting restaurants. i doubted i could buy something for vegetarians there so i brought my own food.

however, there were some fun things to do while there (and ways to spend precious RMB). there's parasailing which charges 100 for 10 minutes of being airborne, jetskiing for two peeps costs 50 each per 10 minutes. there's also a cable ride where passengers drop down from a tower at high speed. dont know how much that one costs though.

apparently, "d" also has these same activities and then some. there are many more restaurants there and fastfood, there are gigantic sculptures lining the beach front and they have a BBQ zone.
since i don't (can't) swim, i spent most of my time just chatting with friends. i spent about 10 minutes dipping in the water. i had to find a cleaner spot and move far away from the spitting chinese man.

highlight of the day was jetskiing. it was my first time riding it so was pretty excited. megan drove the first five minutes and we went fast. we screamed the entire duration of the 10 minute ride. my turn, i decide to be fast and furious in the water and megan screamed directly at my ears. the "guide" was behind megan, and kept pressing the accelerator whenever i slowed down. it was exhilarating! definitely an adrenaline rush. my hands were still shaking 5 mins after the ride was over and my ears ringing from megan's screaming.

going back, i fell asleep on the bus. got off at diwang building in ke xue guan, and decided to grab a green tea frap from starbucks in mix c before heading back to dongguan.