The World is Our Oyster

26 December 2006



China Shenzhen (深圳) Shajing (沙井) – Gibson’s hometown is 30min MRT ride from Luowu City (罗湖市) to Window of the World (世界之窗) and 40min taxi ride thereon. It’s famous for its big fat juicy oysters which are now in season! We started our tour with a sumptuous lunch of barbeque oysters (of course! very yummy!), giant prawns and roast goose.

A stroll round Shajing town is an eye-opening experience. We saw many women sitting on low stool at the roadside, skillfully pried open oyster shell to extract fresh oyster meat. Piles and piles of empty oyster shells everywhere emitted seafood stench. Plenty of oysters were sunbathing and the well-dried were strung up for sale.

Salesgirl at a local grocery store was extremely friendly and patient – teaching us name of various vegetables after we bought a can of drink. We dodged iron horse (bicycle) while walking along the alley (Shajing hutong 胡同) among the old traditional houses. A man was ‘beating’ lump of cotton at a shop which sells pillow & blanket.

A 15-min ride on mini-bus brought us to a quiet beach resort (海上田园风光) on Pearl River Delta – but we didn’t manage to see the beachL. Another $14 per person bus ride brought us back to Luowu city – a 2.5hr journey of horrendous traffic and constant sounding of horn.

A visit to Shenzhen Book City and a spicy Sichuan dinner completed our interesting day tour.