VideoChina’s Leizhou Peninsula: undiscovered gem rich in history, natural beauty and rural ways
Once you get beyond the modern port city of Zhanjiang, the peninsula in eastern Guangdong is a natural delight, boasting a gentle landscape, traditional rural lifestyle, wetlands that attract waterfowl, and a culture all its own
The Leizhou Peninsula is a spur of land thrusting south from the China coast towards Hainan Island. Lacking major tourist attractions like soaring mountains or renowned historic sites, and with only modest transport links by modern China standards, it lies apart from the tourist trail.
But with its expansive landscape, wetlands with a host of waterbirds, traditional lifestyle and blend of typical southern Chinese and local Leizhou culture, the peninsula makes for a rewarding visit, and is perfect for a long weekend.
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Driving into the peninsula from its main city, coastal Zhanjiang in its northeast, the landscape is surprisingly flat, with little hint that there were volcanoes active within the last 10,000 years – long after Hong Kong’s last volcano erupted.
There are expanses of rice fields, too. On a recent visit, farmers were seen preparing fields for spring planting. Another farmer strolled by a paddy, herding a flock of ducks that waddled ahead of him.
Approaching the west coast, there are extensive fish ponds, each about the area of a football field. Here, too, can be found scenes typical of life in rural China, such as water buffalo grazing on a grassy bund or being escorted by a man in a bamboo hat.
Mangroves fringe the coastline. At the Leizhou Jiulongshan Mangrove Wetland Park, egrets and night herons gather to nest in spring. Jiulongshan means Nine Dragon Hills, yet if you look around there are just gentle hillocks nearby.