Chengqu 城区

Setting and landscape

The district has 97 kilometres of coastline and a sea area of 8,949 square kilometres with 376 islands. The district government sums up its scenery as "one lake, two hills, two bays, three islands": Pinqing Lake (品清湖), the Fengshan (凤山) and Tongding (铜鼎山) hills, Yinlong Bay (银龙湾) and Jinding Bay (金町湾), and the islands of Yuzai (屿仔岛), Guiling (龟龄岛) and Jiangmu (江牡岛). Shanwei Port is a national first-class fishing port; Magong (马宫) is a second-class and Jiesheng (捷胜) an ordinary fishing port.

History and culture

When Shanwei city was created from Haifeng and Lufeng counties in January 1988, seven coastal towns of Haifeng became Chengqu. In 1989 Shanwei town was replaced by the Fengshan (凤山), Xiangzhou (香洲) and Xingang (新港) sub-districts, and in 1992 Tianqian (田墘) and Zhelang (遮浪) were split off to form the Honghaiwan Economic Development Experimental Zone (红海湾经济开发试验区). The district government points to the Shakeng culture (沙坑文化), which it dates back 6,000 years, and to Ming-dynasty coastal defences such as the Changsha fort (长沙古炮台) and Kanxia (坎下城).

Three rare opera forms, Baizi opera (白字戏), Zhengzi opera (正字戏) and Xiqin opera (西秦戏), are national intangible heritage, as are the Shanwei fishing songs (汕尾渔歌), listed in 2014 with the district's cultural centre as their safeguarding body. The songs are improvised narrative and lyric pieces of the Ou-boat fishing families (瓯船渔民), who moved south in the Song and Yuan periods, and are sung in the Hoklo dialect of Southern Min. The folklorist Zhong Jingwen (钟敬文) collected them in the 1920s and published them in 1927.

What to see

The Fengshan Mazu Temple (凤山祖庙) has what the district government calls the tallest stone statue of Mazu (妈祖) in China, together with a 60,000-square-metre cultural plaza. Other A-level scenic areas are the Tongding Hill tourist area (铜鼎山旅游区), the Chenzhou oyster village (晨洲蚝乡旅游景区), the Laodetou marine culture park (老德头海洋文化园) and the Zhonghong ecological park (中宏生态园); Jinding Bay has a provincial-level resort.

Food and local products

Chenzhou oysters (晨洲蚝), purple sea urchin (紫海胆) and haili fish (海鲡鱼) are promoted as the "three delicacies of Shanwei". Local cooking draws on Cantonese, southern Fujian and Hakka traditions, and the district's own snacks include caicha (菜茶), sweet and savoury thin pancakes (咸甜薄饼), xiaomi (小米) and caibao guo (菜包粿). Er Malu (二马路) food street and the Pinqing beef brisket street (品清牛腩一条街) are presented by the district as its food calling cards.

Getting oriented

The Shenzhen–Shantou Expressway (深汕高速公路) and the Xiamen–Shenzhen Railway (厦深铁路) both cross the district, and Shanwei Station on that railway lies within it.

Highlights

• Fengshan Mazu Temple 凤山祖庙: A-level scenic area with a Mazu stone statue described by the district government as the tallest in China.
• Pinqing Lake 品清湖: The lake in the district's "one lake, two hills, two bays, three islands" landscape.
• Shanwei fishing songs 汕尾渔歌: National intangible heritage since 2014, sung in the Hoklo dialect by the Ou-boat fishing families.
• Chenzhou oysters 晨洲蚝: One of the "three delicacies of Shanwei"; the oyster village is an A-level scenic area.