Nan’ao, located in the Dapeng Peninsula, is the ocean front area in Shenzhen that is somewhat lesser known to foreign tourists. I took a vacation in Nan’ao for four days and three nights. In the upcoming two entries, I will discuss some of the highlights in this trip.

Situated at the southeasternmost part of Shenzhen, Nanao occupies the Dapeng Peninsula, enveloped by the waters of Mirs Bay on the west and Daya Bay on the east. The western shore of Nanao is a mere 2 nautical miles from the Hong Kong waters. At the peninsula’s immediate north lies Huizhou, which is part of the Greater Bay Area and properly within the administration of Guangdong Province.

As a peninsula, Nanao has a humble beginning. The people lived a seafaring life in fishing villages. By now, tourism has taken over as the latest aspiration for this community. Just a brief walk around our hotel reveals the clear effort to position Nanao as the next seaside resort town in Shenzhen.

Some Things to Do in Nanao

We chose Nanao for this vacation because we wanted to enjoy seaside views. Having passed mid-April, the weather is just about right for swimming. We hadn’t planned too much otherwise, for relaxing in a nice hotel was part of the plan too.

There are two main shores in Nanao and we stayed at the eastern shore. The western shore is more famous and upscale, and a number of restaurants there market themselves as sunset viewing spots at dinnertime. My view is that, if you stay at the eastern shore like we did, you must make a trip (about a half hour by Didi) to the western shore to experience these restaurants and to see the pristine beaches there. But if you already stay on the western shore, then there is no need to visit the east — unless, that is, you are willing to go quite some depth into the humanist aspect of traveling. I will be introducing a brief history of the Dongshan Village in the next entry.

As always, I was ambitious and did much more than I had planned. The most significant solo excursion on this trip was a hike up the Chawangqi Shan mountain. At an altitude of 169 meters, the mountain does not require a rigorous climb. But the hiking paths are very much deserted with heavy and scratchy vegetation. These unclear paths presented some unanticipated dangers. I will discuss the hike in the upcoming entry but I do not recommend any tourist to hike in deserted trails in Shenzhen, and certainly not alone.

Tourists who visit this area for the first time may also consider a half day trip to the Dapeng Fortress from here. Since we have already visited the Dapeng Fortress last year, we would only stay in Nanao this time.

Mello Hotel and Resorts

Its name sounds grander than it really is. The Mello Hotel and Resorts is, properly considered, a very small hotel and perhaps it is more like a hostel in terms of its amenities. In our last vacation in Shenzhen, my friend and I visited the Interlaken Resort in OCT East, where everything was built to mimic Switzerland. The idea that you can experience something that looked so foreign, yet located so close in Shenzhen, remained attractive to us.

In Nanao, we were expecting a “near-South of France” experience at Mello. The hotel is newly constructed with some effort to create a cute French ambience. Large, full sized French windows line all of its rooms. The entrance has an open air corridor featuring arched gateways. The hotel glimmers softly in a pure white color under the sun. Its scale being not even 10% to the OCT East Interlaken Resort Hotel (unfortunately, now closed), it is a grand overstatement to call it “South of France.”

Yet that’s not to say that we did not enjoy our stay. The hotel’s greatest strength is its café, which serves proper coffee and bar drinks. It does have a pretty small menu in terms of food, but the breakfast that it offers is fair.

The café at Mello is a very nice space to relax, read or work. Other than that, I did also swim at their small swimming pool. There was no one else using that facility. Finally, I found the staff at Mello to be exceedingly mindful about their customers’ needs. Despite the view of the room being slightly disappointing, I would rate this hotel to be on the better-than-average level.

Getting to Nanao

From Lo Wu, a Didi car would take a little more than 1.5 hours to reach Nanao. It is no short journey, and that was why my friend and I planned a four-day getaway in this part of Shenzhen. Nanao is a vacation spot, not so much for day trips. And I do not recommend anyone getting there from Hong Kong by public transportation. Calling a car somewhere (the closest boundary crossing is Heung Yuen Wai / Lin Tong) is a much better plan.