Coasteering & stream hiking in East Shenzhen. A big arch, easy coasteering with nice views, big boulder wider stream, & hiking within the woods.

  • Beauty/fun: 6/10 the arch is the only remarkable feature while coasteering, but the landscape is cute and nice to dry coasteer on. The stream might have quite some water in the summer time. No high waterfalls, but quite some pools, nice big boulders and some grassy areas. The hike back within the woods and a few open areas with good views. The barbwire, cameras, signs, and others were not fun. Lost in translation. Potentially the route can change with further constructions and restrictions (read next post).
  • Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 4/10 if you get a bit wet. A tiny bit more difficult if you don’t, including a couple of short traverses and a high easy climbing wall. The stream and the path are extremely clear to navigate.
  • The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)

See full screen & the Garmin tracks (one and two, due to an error).

I had Shenzhen in the pipeline for years. But due to Covid restrictions first and then quite some issues I kept postponing it. Late December I had a full weekend for me, so exploration time!

The only information in English that I had found about the Shenzhen coastline was the DongChong to XiChong coastal walk. This post and several others. It looked like it deserved to pay a visit. But everyone was mentioning the potential crowds on it. I decided that I could hike it Sunday early morning, to avoid them as much as possible. So I needed another plan for Saturday. Checking the satellite images and Openstreetmap the East of DongChong looked interesting. Several hiking paths marked on the latter. A couple of streams, one of them really clear in the satellite images (wide). The coasteering looked easy in several spots and just a few potential traverses… Good to give it a try.

So a Saturday early morning I started the long transportation. High speed train to Futian. Subway to Liantang Checkpoint. There should have been a bus going to DongChong, but it was a bit chaotic there. Tons of traffic. People shouting to get into their buses. With my very basic Mandarin I asked around. They told me (I think) that there was no direct bus, but that I needed to take one there and change a bit further. Ehhh… I wanted to test all logistic options, so time for Didi.

For those new to Mainland, the tech basics. I have roaming activated in my phone. Check with your mobile provider for daily reduced price packages or get a data (e)SIM. Google Maps is not good there. Amap as the main navigation tool therefore. You can set it in English and allows you to find public transport options among others. Wechat fully ready with the Payment services (you can pay basically everything in Shenzhen with it, even to street vendors) and the various widgets activated. The latter included the Shenzhen subway and bus payments and Didi, the “Chinese Uber”. Set the destination, see the different options and a car was ready to pick me up in a few minutes. I marked not to be called but to use only text as I didn’t speak Chinese. No problem whatsoever. Approx. 70km, 80 minutes and RMB130 later I was in my destination. More than one hour before my initial noon time expected start time. Things had been pretty smooth so far. They wouldn’t for much longer 😅

Even if I had all my stuff ready for wet coasteering (waterproofed) it was a bit windy and I preferred to stay dry. The plan was to check around and get a sense of how interesting could be to bring buddies to the area. Therefore I headed to the hiking paths first. WC next to the parking and up the road with a few hikers around. In the middle some construction and a guard post. We were not allowed to continue. Impossible to understand what the guard was telling me in Chinese. Every one was heading down again… I checked the map more thoroughly and I realized (zoom) that there was a closed fence icon there indeed… 😒 I saw that there was a double cave icon down there too. “An arch?”

So I tried to go to the beach the most direct way… Fence and barbwire… 😒 It would happen several times. Supposedly to protect from smugglers. That’s the why of the erratic initial backs and forth on the map. 40 minutes lost and I was back at the starting point. There is only one entry to the beach, with turnstiles. So I guess an entry fee is charged. That day they were arranging different stuff around and I was able to get in without.

Cross the beach to the end and with the mid high tide, time to scramble a bit too keep dry. I could see people doing so. In no time I was in the arch. They were under construction there. It seems that they are creating a path that connects with the road that I had been on, next to the guard post. I saw a little creek on the map. So I tried to go up… Barbwire 😒 Back to the coast. From the stairs I could see a faint path on the right side of the arch. OK, it looked like the way that hikers would follow to avoid the compulsory (short) wet crossing of the arch. Up I went, sandy scramble and… barbwire again… But I saw ribbons this time and following them I was able to pass above it (1:07). Just a bit further the path gets really clear and bifurcates. You can see in the satellite image the faint path down to the coastline.

A sketchy rope (1:18) set there to “help” you on the sandy path down and back on the rocks next to the sea. For a long while the coasteering is simple with just one remarkable traverse and quite some easy scrambles. Eventually the route gets a bit more complicated, but I saw ribbons for the last time to avoid the first cliff (2:12 & 5 on the map) that you can see clearly again in the satellite images.

Most surely this would be a wet crossing without going up high an reconnecting. A bit further the first real “climb” (6). I thought that I would need to remove the gloves seeing the almost vertical wall (2:29) but it was easier than it looked. Good crack handholds and footholds. A little later (6b – 2:53) a pebble and rock beach with an abandoned house next to it. Not sure what its original purpose was. Several rock plates in the area mark, in Chinese, that you are in the “Shenzhen Dapeng Peninsula National Geopark” or something similar.

Also newer signs asking you not to step on the fragile vegetation above. No problem. I continued on the coastline. Solar powered orange structures with cameras and loudspeakers where a bit scary, once I was not able to understand what they were saying. Eventually I discovered that they were just warning you to be careful with fire… I could see several fishermen en route. Also the views of Sanmen island in front.

Eventually I arrived at the main stream (7-3:50) called 高排坑水 Gao Pai River. Big ribbons again there. Very open, big boulders, clean water but surprisingly with no life. I could not see fish, crabs, and others that I would expect in a stream like this one. Only insects. So I would be cautious about swimming much there. Potentially chemically polluted (?) There are no high waterfalls, but it must have quite some water in the summertime.

I had time and I decided to take one of the hiking paths to get to the lower entry of the parallel stream further East (9): 李伯坳水 Li Bo Ao. The path was very clear. I found there a few fishermen hiking in opposite direction towards DongChong, I guess after a day fishing. The pebble beach welcomed me with more orange posts with their camera, motion detection and loudspeakers shouting their things.

The stream was a mess. Tons of trash coming from the sea and a typhoon at its bottom. The stream looked way narrower and with more vegetation, so I decided to go back to Gao Pai.

The second and third sections are very similar to the first. Wide stream without much action. I arrived to the upper hiking path crossing (12-5:22). On the map I could see that the stream becomes faint at around 400m altitude. You can not barely see it in the satellite images and the nearest path is 550m high. The path that I was at is at 120m altitude. Less than an hour before the sunset. Too dangerous to follow. I did not want to bushwalk in the dark. So I decided to exit.

The path is extremely clear and a pipeline runs next to it. The same as on the lower one. Additionally there are tons of ribbons. I passed a few hikers there. Fast hiking and little jogging, in 20 minutes I was on a concrete path. I could see that it was heading to the guard post that I had not been allowed to cross before 🤔 “Should I go down again to the arch?”. But, no need. I saw hikers just heading down the concrete path. So I followed them and… there was no one at the guard post to tell us anything 🤷‍♂️ They might work only certain hours and if you go really early or late you can pass (?) Quite confused with the whole day.

Go to the hotel. Several available in trip.com and a few really cheap. Restaurant nearby and early sleep.

Drone footage including part of the coastline coasteered on and what I would do the next day way to Xi Chong and more.

I didn’t spent much time in the mangrove area, but, researching after, it looks interesting enough to spend some little time walking around.

Everything you should know before coastering & stream hiking.