Shenzhen Shorts – Dameisha Beach and the Interlaken Resort

There were those days. A few decades ago, my family took a vacation in Xiaomeisha in Shenzhen. That was when even the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant had not been built yet. In those times, a vacation in Shenzhen alone was a big deal for the people of Hong Kong. For one thing, the boundary crossing at Lo Wu was not yet air-conditioned.

In the dog days of the summer, it took a lot of willpower just to make a trip through the only boundary crossing point at that time, which was the Lo Wu pass. There was no air con, and there were a whole lot of people wanting to visit families in China during the summer. People were shoulder to shoulder at the bridge at the Lo Wu boundary crossing. It was quite a scene then. Not to mention the fact that a trip to Xiaomeisha in those days would necessitate a long, hot and bumpy bus ride after crossing the boundary.

I do remember quite distinctly that our trip to Xiaomeisha was good, despite the difficulty of transportation. The beach there was amazing, with pristine waters and fluffy white sand.

The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant is relevant in the sense that I do not dare swimming in either the Dameisha Beach or the Xiaomeisha Beach anymore. They are simply too close to the nuclear power plant. Lying in the southern waters of the Dameisha Beach is the Mirs Bay, indeed, the waters of Hong Kong.

I visited Dameisha just to look, for mostly nostalgic reasons.

The Dameisha Beach

The first impression on this trip to Dameisha Beach was just how much China has shaped up its city infrastructure in the few decades since I last went to Xiaomeisha. Located on the eastern end of Shenzhen, Dameisha was just one metro stop away from Xiaomeisha, which lies at the very eastern end of the subway Line 2.

The subway station was new with clear instructions. Dameisha Beach lies right outside of the subway station and it was exceedingly convenient.

I saw the beach packed with an enormous crowd on a Friday afternoon. It was certainly a family occasion with many, many children.

In terms of amenities, there is a shower and toilet area. I had not checked whether they were clean, but certainly they were of heavy usage. It goes without saying that there are businesses there, chiefly many restaurants along the beachfront offering all kinds of food. There were also many shops there offering rentals, and you could easily get any beach gear you need there.

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, I found the natural endowment of the Dameisha Beach to be exceedingly clean, perhaps in spite of the huge crowd there. Needless to say, there was a bit of a mess in the dining area. But a cursory look at the shore shows clearly that the water was very clear and the sand was fine.

People were swimming and also doing some interesting water sports. I saw a paraglider being pulled by the speedboat in the open sea. All looked fun, but I was happy with my icy cold lemon drink by the beachside. I spent an hour there hearing the cacophonies of summer joy – genuine cheers to the beautiful environment that Dameisha offers to its wave chasers.

The Interlaken OCT

According to Nowshenzhen.com, the OCT East (East Overseas Chinese Town), covers “an area of 9 square kilometers at Da Mei Sha of Shenzhen, is the national ecological tourism demonstration district and the international tourism destination, at an investment of 3.5 billion Yuan by the OCT Group. It is a combination of two theme parks, three scenic towns, four resort hotels, two 18-hole golf courses, Hua Xing Temple and Tianlu mansion etc.”

The Interlaken OCT Hotel is a four-star hotel and this was our destination for this weekend getaway. Located up the mountain that hovers over the sandy stretches of Shenzhen’s coastline in Dameisha, the Interlaken OCT Hotel presents something of quite a different nature from that of the Dameisha Beach. As its name suggests, the hotel is part of a resort area that mimics the environ of Switzerland.

When I arrived at the hotel, I was truly impressed by the beautiful reception hall, with a ceiling a few floors high, and enormous decorative fixtures that did, in my view, create an impression that we were somewhere in a foreign land. It was worlds apart from the scene in Dameisha Beach, and I did appreciate that sense of relative serenity in the mountains.

There was a lake outside of the hotel and I sat down for coffee. I was sure though that this lake was manmade. From afar the structures really make it seem like a European landscape. But upon a closer look at the facilities, I noticed signs of visible decrepitude. Efforts of maintenance are seen throughout, but some of the fixtures could not help but to look tired – the carpets a bit worn, the exteriors showing dark water stains and all structures appeared to be worn and aged. It has certainly past its prime.

A Review of the Interlaken OCT Hotel

My review of the hotel experience is mixed. There are certainly some very good aspects at the hotel that we considered exceptional. I laud the hotel for giving rigorous training to its staff. The hospitality (in all respects, at all venues in the hotel) was flawless. For example, we insisted on being given a room that we were satisfied with. The staff showed not a trace of annoyance when we made repeated requests for another room. The staff at the restaurant noticed that we gave up a whole plate of meat on our hotpot meal set (included in the hotel package), and offered us a full plate of vegetables (that we would eat) instead.

When we returned to our room we found a huge cockroach on the wall. We called for immediate assistance, and when the staff came, it was both a hospitality staff and a cleaning staff. The cleaning staff found a way to remove the cockroach without spraying potentially toxic insecticide. The hospitality staff offered to upgrade our room. We decided to stay in the original room, however. To be honest, this type of service cannot be expected in China, and I make this comment not from prejudice but from experience. The exceptionality is in the fact that we felt taken care of everywhere in the hotel, not just at the front desk.

There are unexpected ways in which the hotel experience was not so positive. For example, the climate there is incredibly humid, and we make this comparison to Hong Kong, which itself is known for its humidity. We could even feel the humidity when we slept. The room did come with a dehumidifier, but we probably could not have stayed there for longer than a few days.

This aspect of the experience shows why something placed in China cannot truly emulate something that is actually in Europe, no matter how much money you pour into the development. Suffice to say, however, that the mountainous environment was itself therapeutic, and the resort was good enough as a weekend getaway. Please see the next entry on the Biling Hiking Trail for more authentic experiences in the nature in this resort area.

Also, the swimming pool was closed and I was disappointed. There is a sense that not enough business and users are at the hotel to sustain the running of certain facilities. The gym was open, however.

In the second day at the hotel I decided to stay all day in my hotel room. It was a nice and roomy accommodation, and all the in-room facilities worked well. Although the lake was likely manmade, the European-style structures afar and the lake view together are tranquil.

Because the hotel is reachable only by a meandering mountain path, we found it troublesome to have to go into town for food. We therefore fully utilized our packaged deal and dined in the hotel’s western cuisine dining room for all our meals. There was breakfast and dinner included in the package.

Dinner was one hotpot set, and we had to say that it was not enough food for two persons, even if we hadn’t turned down the plate of meat that we did not want. So we ordered something from the menu at a low cost. The food was of fair quality. We loved our veggies in the hotpot. Breakfast was scrumptious with many choices in a buffet style. We had late breakfast so that we did not have to order lunch.

I had no complaints apart from the humidity and the pool closure.

Sources

Nowshenzhen.com, OCT East (East Overseas Chinese Town).