CanadaKate

Hi, all,

I'm thinking this may be a futile question but I'm wondering if there are any beaches near Shanghai ... as opposed to the polluted shipping lanes.

Tks.

CanadaKate in Toronto

NC_gurl

I doubt there are any beaches near Shanghai, however, you can opt to go to Sanya or Hong Kong, just few hours away..

Cicerone

I believe everything actually close to the coast of Shanghai is quite muddy and tidal in addition to being polluted.

There is an “artificial” beach with imported sand at Jinshan about an hour away from Shanghai, this has a barrier to keep out the bad water and a filtration system to keep the water you are swimming on OK; I have not been, I have heard mixed results from people who have been. I have head that the beach itself gets quite crowded and littered with cigarettes and other trash. It would not hold a whole lot of attraction to me.

There is a water park called Dino Beach just outside Shanghai, there have a man-made wave machine, a beach, lazy river, etc that is supposed to be fun. If you don’t go on a weekend (when it would most likely be jammed), that might be a good alternative. I could not find a website, but look at a guidebook.

There are beaches near Ningbo (primarily Putuoshan island) and places like Shengsi, but these are going to take you 3-4 hours by bus or car; now lots of people on the East Coat of the US would do that for a weekend and maybe you would too. Or you can fly to Ningbo in something less than an hour, but if you are going to get on a plane you may as well go elsewhere IMO. (With travel time to airport, security, etc of course it’s way more than just an hour.) Ningbo is big city, but is actually a very interesting place (it’s a former British treaty port) and the beaches are not bad really. Qingdao has some really good beaches, but that is not drivable IMO, you would need to take a train or fly, flight is only about 1.5 hours. (The sailing events for the Olympics are being held there.)

Sanya referred to above is on Hainan island, the “Hawaii” of China and does have some very nice beaches. You can fly non-stop from Shanghai in about 2.5 hours. Depending on the time of year, it can be a good trip. Hainan Island is like Hong Kong and has cool and wet seasons, take a look at weatherbase.com.

And while I love Hong Kong and it has some very pretty beaches, I would not swim in the water at about 99% of them. Most of them are on shipping lanes to begin with. None of them have beach hotels in any event, and day tripping may not be what you had in mind. The only places I would swim really is from a boat up in Mirs Bay and Sai Kung. Everything else is too near the Pearl River Delta and the shipping lanes for me. The beaches also tend not to be as clean as you would want.

There are public pools in Shanghai as far as I know which you should be able to access. You might also want to stay at a hotel with a pool.

Barkinpark

You can also consider Okinawa (Japan) which are not too far from Shanghai, though I am not sure there are direct flights from Shanghai to Okinawa.

Cicerone

What an interesting thought, and boy would those beaches be CLEAN...the flights all seem to connect through Osaka or Nagoya and take 5.5 to 6 hours, but it is supposed to be a very lovely place.

W9London

Re: Okinawa, Air China/ANA code-share flies between Shanghai and Fukuoka. ANA and JAL should have flights between Fukuoka and Naha (okinawa main island).

rkkwan

Never been there and don't know much about their beaches, but S. Korea's Cheju Island may be another alternative. With non-stop flights that takes under an hour, it's a lot easier to get to than Okinawa.

CanadaKate

Thanks, all, for the range of informative answers.

I think we'll save the beach for another trip when we can go to Hainan Island.

BTW, we are planning to visit Dino Beach (definitely for the kids rather than the adults on this trip).

CanadaKate