Living in the Greater Bay Area
In the first year of retirement (2023), I chose a 'Heading North' special train tour of the Great Northeast, lasting 19 days, exploring the characteristic landscapes of the three northeastern provinces, plus Qinhuangdao in Hebei and Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, reaching as far as the northernmost Arctic Village, fulfilling my dream of traveling in the Northeast. In 2024, my second year of retirement, I started a live-away-from-home mode to experience the slow life after retirement.
My first destination for living abroad was the relatively economically developed Greater Bay Area, staying at Xunliao Bay in Huizhou, which is known as the back garden of Shenzhen, a weekend getaway, and a second hometown for seniors settling down. It's far from the hustle and bustle of the city yet, thanks to convenient transportation, also allows for nearby sightseeing. It is truly an ideal place for retirement living and leisurely exploring the Bay Area.
Originally, I planned to take a sleeper bullet train from Shanghai Hongqiao to Shenzhen and then transfer to Huidong South. However, the sleeper bullet train from Hongqiao to Shenzhen only runs on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. So we switched to a flight from Wuxi to Huizhou. From Huizhou Pingtan Airport to Xunliao Bay, it's a 1.5-hour taxi ride, and the living base can arrange airport pickup. So, as soon as we got off the plane, we felt the warmth of the living base butler, who arranged our check-in, explained follow-up matters, and added us to the living family group before leaving the room.
According to the advance booking, we were arranged in a 30th-floor sea-view room at the Sea World Deep Blue Resort Hotel, about 45 square meters, with two 1.5-meter double beds and an open kitchen. From the room, we could directly see the sea, and with the window open, we could hear the waves crashing on the shore. All three meals were arranged at the seaside restaurant. Every day we strolled on the beach, ate buffet-style, watched the sunset, feeling utterly carefree. The butlers also posted nearby tour plans on a rolling basis in the living family group each week for everyone to choose from.
The Xunliao Bay Tourist Resort is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side, with a 27-kilometer coastline and a total area of 105 square kilometers. It boasts 'extremely clear water, extremely white sand, and extremely beautiful rocks.' The sandy beach stretches for several kilometers, the seabed is flat and firm, the seawater is clear and green, and the coastal reefs are magnificently odd. It is known as the 'China's Maldives.'
The Financial Street Sea World is a coastal resort built by Beijing Financial Street in Huizhou. Currently, three phases have been released, featuring an independent seaside bathing beach, an outdoor hot spring area, and a tropical jungle sea play amusement park. Every day, you can immerse yourself, take photos, and enjoy the sunshine, sea, and jungle. The day before the Spring Festival, the children flew from Shanghai to Shenzhen. Because during the Spring Festival travel season, they couldn't buy high-speed rail tickets from Shenzhen to Huidong South. Ctrip arranged a small car to pick them up from Shenzhen Airport to Xunliao Bay, which was both convenient and safe. As soon as the children saw the white sand beach, they forgot it was New Year's Eve, rolled up their pants, and started having fun in the sea and catching seafood.
Adjacent to Sea World, Sea Park is a tourist resort developed earlier than Sea World, covering twice the area. It is one of the national recuperation bases for model workers. The park offers a seafood barbecue street suitable for young people and a large water world for children's entertainment. Since we came in winter, it wasn't suitable for swimming in the sea, so we didn't experience the water world's fun. Winter is also the off-season for Xunliao Bay tourism, with not many tourists on the beach, except for weekends when there are a few more. Delta Island, known as 'Little Maldives,' also lost its peak-season scenery because swimming was not allowed.
Shuangyue Bay Scenic Area, more than ten kilometers from Sea World, is also a must-visit. The base arranged a one-day tour for us, including Shuangyue Bay Observation Deck, Turtle Bay, Spanish-style Town, and Moshizi Park. During a lunch of special vegetarian buffet, we visited the west gate of Pinghai Ancient City, known as a 'living fossil' of Lingnan culture.
To reach the Shuangyue Bay Observation Deck, you can only take the scenic area shuttle bus, with no scenery along the uphill climb. The observation deck is at the top of the mountain, offering a majestic and stunning panoramic view that is breathtaking. Shuangyue Bay is divided into left and right bays with different views. The left bay is sparkling and tranquil, while the right bay has surging waves and great momentum, hence the name Shuangyue Bay (Double Moon Bay).
Turtle Island is China's only sea turtle nature reserve, located at the southern end of Shuangyue Bay at the foot of Daxing Mountain. Sea turtles are China's second-class protected animals. They can crawl on land and swim in water, returning annually to their spawning grounds to reproduce. The reserve covers an area of 4 square kilometers, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side, with a sandy beach area of 0.1 square kilometers in a secluded environment. The seabed near the shore is sandy with a few reefs, water depth 5-15 meters, clear water, summer and autumn water temperature around 28°C, annual seawater salinity above 30‰, gentle beach slope, fine sand grains, conducive to sea turtle crawling, digging, and spawning. To avoid disturbing turtle habitats, the Guangdong Provincial Government has put Turtle Island under government control: restricting crowds and prohibiting loud noises. Therefore, the island is well-ordered and clean. To help tourists learn about sea turtles, there are many informational display windows and a sea turtle venue for close-up viewing.
Moshizi Park is a natural park of strange rocks formed hundreds of millions of years ago. Each rock is a masterpiece of nature. Large rocks standing by the sea look like mushrooms or lingzhi. From here, you can see Delta Island in the distance, somewhat making up for not being able to visit the island this time.
Chaozhou in Guangdong is not included in the Greater Bay Area, but it is a culturally rich area in eastern Guangdong. Chaozhou is also a thousand-year-old ancient city, the birthplace of Chaoshan culture. We joined a local travel agency's 'Chaoshan 2-Day Tour' from the base. Although it was the off-season, there were still many tourists.
Guangji Bridge, located east of Chaozhou city, is one of the famous ancient bridges in China, listed together with Zhaozhou Bridge, Luoyang Bridge, and Lugou Bridge as the 'Four Great Ancient Bridges of China,' and is the first opening-closing pontoon bridge in China. The piers are built of granite blocks, making it a valuable heritage of Chinese bridge construction. The middle section is a pontoon bridge made of 18 shuttle boats that can open and close. When large boats or rafts pass, the floating boats can be untied to let them through, then returned to place. This is the earliest movable large stone bridge in China and the world. A folk saying goes: 'If you come to Guangdong but not to Chaozhou, it's a wasted trip; if you come to Chaozhou but not to the bridge, it's a waste of effort.' Every day from 4 PM to 4:30 PM, the 'demolish the bridge to cross the river' performance is held on Guangji Bridge, and at 8 PM, there is a light show on the bridge.
While waiting for the evening light show, we visited the ancient city of Chaozhou and tasted its specialties. The Paifang Street (Archway Street) is the biggest highlight. Here you can deeply explore ancient Chaoshan culture and taste all kinds of Chaoshan specialties.
Nan'ao Island is located in the sea east of Guangdong, in the subtropical zone, traversed by the Tropic of Cancer, at the center of the Kaohsiung-Xiamen-Hong Kong triangle, bordering the main West Pacific international shipping route, and is the dividing point between the East China Sea and the South China Sea. The island has a 77-kilometer coastline and 66 bays. Qing'ao Bay on Nan'ao Island has fine, soft sand on a gentle slope, clear seawater with moderate salinity, making it a natural excellent seaside bathing beach and one of the two A-grade bathing beaches in Guangdong Province.
Qihang Square and Tropic of Cancer Square are the main must-visit attractions on Nan'ao Island. At Qihang Square, you can admire the majestic Nan'ao Bridge. Because the viewing angle is better than that of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, it's easier to take photos of people together with the bridge here.
Revisiting 'Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao.' Considering that the children could only travel during their holidays, we did not join the base's activities for this Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao trip but instead chose a 'Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao 2-Day Tour' arranged by Ctrip. On the first day, we set off early from the base and checked into Shenzhen Guobin Hotel. The location is very convenient: Metro lines 2, 5, and 8 all converge here (Huangbeiling Station), providing direct access to high-speed rail stations, airports, Liantang Port, Civic Center, Window of the World, Zhongying Street, etc., without transfers. We also tasted northeastern dishes from other places at 'Fengtian Mansion' on East Street, which lost none of the authentic northeastern flavor. Worth praising: Shenzhen is the first city in China to offer free subway and bus rides to seniors aged 60 and above from all over the country, without any exclusion.
Considering our next trip to live on Hailing Island in Yangjiang, we stored our large luggage at Shenzhen Guobin Hotel. We used the time returning from Zhuhai to visit Zhongying Street.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, during the peak tourist season, we went to Hong Kong via Liantang Port. According to the guide from 'Hong Kong-Macao Customs Travel Agency,' their agency alone had 90 groups going to Hong Kong that day. Waiting and crowding were inevitable, and I was mentally prepared: accompanying the children, safety was paramount. There were indeed many people, but since I had been to Hong Kong many times, I quickly led them to the best photo spots after getting off the bus. West Kowloon, Harbour City, Victoria Peak, Stone Slab Street, Golden Bauhinia Square, Star Ferry, Avenue of Stars, and we also arranged a 'Pearl of the Orient' cruise to tour Victoria Harbour at night. The schedule was tight but without regrets. The only drawback was that we were originally booked in Tsuen Wan, but due to accommodation shortage, we were temporarily arranged to a hotel near the airport, with no food shops around. We had to walk to the airport terminal to buy some bread, instant noodles, sandwiches, and iced soy milk to stave off hunger.
Crossing to Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the most convenient way. However, unfortunately, the shuttle bus does not stop at the mid-island of the bridge, and it was cloudy that day, so we couldn't see the magnificent Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. This was a major shortfall of the trip for me, as the bridge was a must-see attraction for the first time.
Entering Macau left a deep impression on me. Objectively, because there were too many tourists—reportedly over 200,000 entered Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge that day—the local Macau tour guides were very busy and disorganized. The originally planned groups were temporarily cobbled together on the spot due to the inconsistent order of cross-border tourists, completely lacking order. I quickly approached any guide from Hong Kong-Macao Customs to join a group and escape the crowded area, starting the day's itinerary. Relatively speaking, visiting Fisherman's Wharf, Ruins of St. Paul's, and the Return Museum weren't too crowded, but by the afternoon when we went to the Venetian, Eiffel Tower, Diamond Show, etc., it became very chaotic. So we exited back to Zhuhai at 5 PM.
After leading the family back to Zhuhai, we immediately felt relaxed. We even dared to let the children take a taxi alone to the hotel in Zhuhai. In the evening, the children treated us to a long-missed pickled fish hotpot, and the Guangdong Chen Ji specialty roast goose was scheduled for the next day's lunch. Although Hong Kong and Macau have returned to China, arriving in Zhuhai truly felt like being home.
The next day happened to be Western Valentine's Day, so strolling along Zhuhai's Lover's Road added a touch of romance. Sun Moon Shell and Zhuhai Fisher Girl couldn't compare to Lover's Road. The little grandson was captivated by the different beach and wanted to dig in the sand like in Xunliao Bay. Fortunately, the plan to go to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in the afternoon stopped him. Through Ctrip, we had booked the Circus Hotel at the Ocean Kingdom for them early on. Although the price was not budget-friendly, the day and a half at the Ocean Kingdom was a child's paradise, so they didn't feel tired even when taking the 7:30 PM flight back.
