Zhanjiang 湛江市

Setting and landscape

The land is mostly plains and terraces, higher along the peninsula's spine; the low hills of the north reach 384 metres at Shuangfengzhang (双峰嶂). The coast runs for about 2,024 kilometres, with islands such as Donghai (东海岛), Nansan (南三岛) and Naozhou (硇洲岛), and the red soils have earned the region the name "red earth". Summers are long, thunderstorms frequent and typhoons common.

History

The Liyudun (鲤鱼墩) shell midden in Suixi (遂溪县), 7,000 to 8,000 years old, is identified by researchers as the peninsula's earliest settlement. In 634 the Tang renamed the local prefecture Leizhou (雷州), and it governed the peninsula's three counties until the Qing; Leizhou is now a national historical and cultural city. In 1899 France leased land from Suixi and Wuchuan (吴川) counties around the bay that is now Zhanjiang port and ran Guangzhouwan as part of French Indochina; Japan occupied it in 1943, and on 19 October 1945 it was handed back at the old French legation (法国驻广州湾公使署) and named Zhanjiang.

Leizhou speech (雷州话), a Min dialect, is widely spoken, while Cantonese prevails in Xiashan (霞山区) and Chikan (赤坎区) and Hakka is also heard. In the human dragon dance (人龙舞) of Dongshan on Donghai Island, on the first national intangible heritage list in 2006, dozens to hundreds of young adults and teenagers in shorts link their bodies into a long dragon; performers trace it to the late Ming.

What to see

Huguangyan (湖光岩) in Mazhang District (麻章区) is a maar lake left by a steam-driven volcanic blast 140,000 to 200,000 years ago and is part of the Leiqiong UNESCO Global Geopark. National key heritage sites include the Leizu Temple (雷祖祠) and the Naozhou lighthouse (硇洲灯塔). The "eight views of Zhanjiang" include the Jinsha Bay (金沙湾) promenade and the South Asian tropical botanical garden, and the city has a national mangrove nature reserve.

Food and local products

Oysters are raised on hanging lines in clean coastal waters; for charcoal-grilled oysters (炭烧生蚝), garlic paste and sauce go into the freshly opened shell before it is set over the fire. Wuchuan's lanhuo fried rice noodles (烂镬炒粉), made since the Ming and Qing, are named after a "broken wok" with its handles knocked off and rim cut down to give an evenly heated flat base; fine-cut rice noodles are fried hard with lard and garlic, then toasted slowly until golden.

Highlights

• Huguangyan 湖光岩: Maar lake 140,000 to 200,000 years old in Mazhang District, part of the Leiqiong UNESCO Global Geopark.
• Former French legation of Guangzhouwan 广州湾法国公使署旧址: Where Guangzhouwan was handed back to China on 19 October 1945.
• Naozhou lighthouse 硇洲灯塔: National key heritage site and one of the eight views of Zhanjiang.
• Human dragon dance 人龙舞: Donghai Island dance in which performers in shorts link bodies into a dragon; national intangible heritage (2006).
• Lanhuo fried rice noodles 烂镬炒粉: Wuchuan noodles fried in a 'broken wok' with its handles and rim removed.