Shanwei #1: Binhai Park

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After the best night's sleep I have had in a long time, I ordered some breakfast. Since it would be my last meal in Shenzhen, I ordered from a chain that I knew was good. I loved the hotel's delivery robot. It's so convenient bringing your take away to your room and also means the delivery drivers aren't wasting time either. I had ordered Cheung Fun, which are steamed Cantonese rice noodle rolls. They come stuffed with a variety of different fillings and I got some stuffed with egg, beef, shrimp and vegetables. After having some in Sanya and not enjoying them too much due to the sauce, it took me a while to order them in Shenzhen, but the chain I order from has a really good sauce, so I'm a little sad I missed out on them for so long. I also ordered a sweet soy milk and some youtiao. It was a perfect last breakfast. Once all sorted, I headed to the train station, which was about a fifteen-twenty minute walk away. I got there in plenty of time and there seemed to be some issue with my luggage but the security guards took one look at me, a foreigner, and the mass of people coming through security behind me, and looked at each other with a 'let it go' look. Leaving Shanwei I did find out what the problem was, but that's for another blog. The station was rammed but I managed to get a seat until boarding was announced. I have to say I was pretty unimpressed with the train. It was a sleeper train but we were given assigned seat on the bottom berth. I just sat by the door since the journey to Shanwei wasn't too long. It was only around 55 minutes.

From the station, I took the bus to my hotel. The journey was really quick only about 15 minutes and I was happy that I was able to get into my room as it was a bit early. I was very impressed with my room and decided to escape the midday heat and stay under the air conditioning for a bit. After resting up for a while, I decided to go for a walk and see what was about in this part of Shanwei. I headed down to Binhai Park which was about a fifteen minute walk away. I passed some nice looking cafes on the way and if I'd had more time here, I could picture myself enjoying an iced coffee in one or two of these places. After crossing the busy main road, I was at the coastal park. There were a few statues around so I had a look at those. There was an anchor and ship's wheel, a lion in font of a pillar, and something that looked very patriotic. There are two options here, you can either walk along the path or use the boardwalk that goes out over the water. I opted for the boardwalk as I thought it would give me a slightly different perspective. My walk along the boardwalk was nice. I enjoyed seeing the surrounding area. The side I was closest to seemed to be the more established part of the city as the buildings all looked a bit older. The sun was also starting to get lower in the sky was reflecting beautifully off the water. There were also quite a few small fishing boats tied up. On the other side, it seemed to be the newer part of town and there was a lot of construction going on with lots of high rise apartment buildings being built. I was shocked at how quiet it was. I know that it was really hot, but while I was walking along the boardwalk I didn't encounter another soul for absolutely ages. Where was everyone? Is Shanwei a ghost town? Had the apocalypse happened and I wasn't invited? It was actually a bit of a relief to see two teenagers messing about riding along the boardwalk on an ebike as it proved I wasn't alone. I did spy quiet a few dead fish as I walked along, I don't know if they were from fishermen or birds as I saw quite a few what I took to be egrets on the flats below. I also saw a couple of fishermen sorting through their catch of what looked like some kind of shellfish. There was also a nice breeze which had quite a delicious bite of coldness to it. It made the walk a lot more bearable, but was probably not good for the sunburn.

The boardwalk finished so I continued my walk along the coastal path. I pleased to see that it was busier now. There were quite a few old folk out for an evening walk, some joggers and a few people cruising along on bikes and ebikes. As I walked further I came to a smallish beach. There was only one point of entry/exit so I didn't head down to the sand. It looked nice though and as the sun was setting the sky had a lovely pinky hue to it. This place was obviously the place to be as there were quite a few small vendors selling iced tea, skewers, other snacky food and beachy paraphernalia. I made it to the end of the beach area and walked on for another hundred metres or so. There seemed to be some kind of port just around the corner, but it was blocked off, so I decided to turn around as I still had quite a long walk back. I watched the sky change colour as the sun continued to set. It wasn't the most dramatic sunset I have ever seen but it was pretty in a subtle kind of way. I liked that the sun was reflecting off the buildings across the bay as their windows were lit up beautifully. As it got darker, the light came on along the path. I liked the lamps that lit the path. They were pretty. The boardwalk was also lit up and kept changing colours. It looked really nice and I liked that the colours were reflected into the water as it lapped its way to the shore.

It was quicker for me to leave the boardwalk/coastal path and cut up through a residential area to get back to my hotel and I decided to do that as I was feeling tired by this point. I stopped off at the convenience store for some water and also ended up with a pink can of Tsingtao beer. It is a gimmicky cherry blossom flavoured one. Once back at my hotel I settled down on the couch to order some food and try the beer. Nothing was really jumping out at me when I was looking at the different restaurants online. The options in this area didn't look great. However I did find one place that had some dishes that were appealing. I ordered the Lanzhou Fried Rice and a beef Roujiamo, since this was a Muslim owned place there was no pork. I cracked open the beer and was hopeful it would taste good. Unfortunately, it looked a lot better than it tasted. It tasted okay, just like a basic lager, but there was a fake acidic aftertaste, which I think was meant to be the cherry blossom flavour. I should have known as I had tried some cherry blossom flavoured Oreos a couple of months back and they had the exact same after taste. A robot delivered the food to my room. I love these delivery robots, it just feels so futuristic. The fried rice was really good. I haven't had it for ages so it made a really nice change and the bits of beef combined with the egg, vegetables and rice was a good combination. The Roujiamo was also delicious, if a little messy to eat.

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