PSA: Shenzhen's Judiaosha – That Harbour Road is 8-9km away. (Yeah, seriously.)

[Joseph Thompson]

Hey, fellow travelers! Recently, I got excited and went to Gu'diaosha in Shenzhen without any preparation or research into the area.

Transportation & Accommodation

• We drove there by ourselves, staying at a guest house about 3 km away from Gu'diaosha.

️ Word of caution:

• The road conditions near Gu'diaosha are not quite safe; a lot of roads are under construction.
• Where we stayed, the narrow road is supposed to be two lanes. However, because it's so narrow, cars fill up most of the road, making it extremely difficult for other cars to meet and pass through. It’s also very inconvenient when it comes to parking, just a reminder about the location.

️ Talk about my disappointing dining experiences:

• Since my lack of preparation, I relied on an app like Dazhong Dianping to look for group-buying sets (discounted combo meals usually offered by restaurants), selecting one with high ratings.

• To get to the selected restaurant located at “Seaport Street”, I suffered from frequent harassment from touts outside that aimed to lure customers into their shops.

• One mistake: Upon arrival (~ around 7~8pm ), the staff at the restaurant told us that most of the dishes marked as 'frozen items' (that is, frozen seafood not fresh) were sold out.

• They only allowed us to order individually, seeing that their seafood was priced at over 100rmb per pound. (A pound weighs 500g, or roughly 1.1 pounds.)

• Repeated inquiries confirmed that only our团购 items were sold out, however, someone who claimed they were the boss reiterated that all was sold out due to their frozen foods being pre-prepared and limited to just 60 orders each day.

• My crew immediately decided to leave.

• Another bad experience: Starving, we quickly found another place but double-checked via phone first to confirm that the group bought vouchers would be accepted before deciding to head there.

• The long wait time to be seated (the restaurant was packed) made me think twice, but we still waited for the meal. Not to my surprise, once arrived, the food served wasn’t too fresh. This was repeated three times – freshness is very important!

• Additionally, the group-buying voucher required us to register additional personal information, and the staff also constantly approached us halfway through the meal asking for a positive review and offering small gifts as incentives. However, we turned them down out of politeness.

Strongly recommended: If you're planning a trip there, consider meals seriously; perhaps consider bringing your own food.

It could perhaps be attributed to my lack of research, resulting in a plethora of dietary drawbacks ‍️

Some useful tips for you:

• I do not recommend visiting Gu'diaosha on grey days, as the weather plays a significant role in determining the view, which may not be as alluring as you imagined.
• Furthermore, I’d suggest going to the Honeysuckle Bay (also known as Honeysuckle Cove) on Huijian Island, where the sand is primarily composed of stones, and the area is interesting, with the opportunity of collecting snails, or catching small blue crabs.
• From Honeysuckle Bay, take a boat to Lu’zi Villa, a filming site for the movie "The Mermaid" starring Jackie Chan's actor, Stephen Chow. The round trip costs 60 RMB per person; while picturesque, the location tends to be crowded.

Alas, a hard-learned lesson there! Never again traveling without full preparation! [Sigh face]

Any seasoned masters, please recommend good restaurants nearby Gu'diaoshia, no need to be close to scenic spot, so long as it's tasty！
#AvoidTraps #GuDiaoshaTravel

[Kathryn Heller]

Last time I was there, I saw a post recommending a restaurant, so I went to try it out, and it was pretty good.

[Lucille Borer]

I think the restaurant was called something like 'Jiu Ge Yuji Private Kitchen'.

[Dana Sanford]

I went during the May Day holiday too. The seaview restaurant I found through a group deal was only about 150 yuan, and it was quite tasty. I ate there a few times, and they always had what we ordered available.

[Beulah Koelpin]

I'll go check it out next time the weather's good.

[Abraham Kris]

Why not eat over at Dongshan Pier? It's not far.

[Orlando Ryan]

I didn't do any research beforehand.