Photo adjustments
EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Explore the region
About China's First Beach
China's First Beach (中国第一滩) is a beach resort in Nanhai Subdistrict (南海街道), Dianbai District (电白区), Maoming (茂名), Guangdong, about 25 km from central Maoming.
Its centrepiece is a natural sand beach roughly 12 km long and some 300 m wide. The planned scenic area is 3.6 km², of which 1.2 km² forms the core. Since 2012 the city government has designated a 20 km stretch of shore, running east and west of the beach, as Maoming Binhai Park (茂名滨海公园), an open public space for holidays and leisure, and the whole resort is also known by that name.
Development began after Maoming created the Shuidong Economic Development Pilot Zone (水东经济开发试验区) in Dianbai in 1992. The zone's managers decided to turn the bathing beach below Hutou Mountain (虎头山) into a scenic area. The name came in early 1993: the visiting Yang Maozhi (杨茂之) proposed "First Beach under Heaven" (天下第一滩), and the zone's Party secretary Li Guanlai (李观来) adapted it to "China's First Beach", which the city leadership approved. The beach opened that year with four zones for sea bathing, water sports, holiday stays and a central plaza, and on 11 November 1993 Li Desheng (李德生) wrote out its name in calligraphy after a visit. It was rated a national AAA tourist attraction in 2001 and AAAA in 2017, and Overseas Chinese Town Group (华侨城集团) took over its management in August 2020.
The sand has also served as a beach-volleyball venue. It hosted the first national beach volleyball championship in 2000, FIVB women's world beach volleyball open events in 2001 and 2002, and the Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in 2019.
What to look for
- The natural sand beach, about 12 km long and 300 m wide
- Hutou Mountain (虎头山), the hill above the original bathing beach
- The four zones laid out in 1993: the bathing beach, the water-sports area, the holiday area and the central plaza
- Maoming Binhai Park (茂名滨海公园), a 20 km stretch of open shore running east and west of the beach
- The beach-volleyball sands used for FIVB women's events in 2001–2002 and the 2019 Asian championship
Location & getting there
Getting to China's First Beach
- Search for 中国第一滩 with 茂名市 and 电白区.
Find China's First Beach
中国第一滩 · 电白区
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Opening hours, admission and access arrangements are not covered; confirm current visitor information with the site.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "中国第一滩" · CC BY-SA 4.0.