A friend rode to Zhuhai last year, and this year he started pestering me early on to hurry up and buy a bike. Fine — I bought a Merida Warrior, plus quick-dry clothing, gloves, bike lights… a whole pile of odds and ends. National Day arrived, a 7-day holiday… and then — I got stood up. Very annoying: one went home, the other was out making extra money. Forget it, I figured a trip to Zhuhai was still worth it. In the evening I got in touch with some group friends, but none of them had time, or rather most had already set off on the 1st. Then let’s go wild once — sometimes you just have to do things alone anyway. I checked the route Baidu Maps gave, and it looked like this: this route is wrong, why does it loop all the way over to Guangzhou? What I found online was to cross by the Humen ferry and go straight to Nansha District in Guangzhou. Following the map’s suggestion would mean a big pointless detour. I can’t plan the route that way, so I’ll ride it in stages first. Stage one, from Shenzhen to the Humen ferry. Stage two, from Guangzhou’s Nansha District to Zhongshan. Stage three, from Zhongshan to Zhuhai. So, let’s start with stage one.
This time it’s right — time to set off, a solo trip. Starting from Bantian bus stop, heading up along Jihua Road, then Gongye Road, and finally turning onto Bulong Road. This stretch is mostly still in Shenzhen, and I could basically still run into other cycling groups — quite a few heading to Guangzhou or Songshan Lake, after all there were showers these past few days.
Reached Guangming, what a long stretch of road. There are so many forks in the roads here, and I took a wrong turn, so I had to double back. About to enter Furong Dao — bye bye, Shenzhen!
Chang’an, here I come.
No traffic jam today, which is nice. Just follow the S358 highway straight on and you’re fine — don’t look at the map, the map’s route winds around and is a total trap. Get here
From here you can go straight up, or go left, either is fine, as long as you reach Lundu Road. Lundu Road is really long — when you get tired just push the bike and walk a bit, my butt doesn’t hurt anyway. It’s my legs that hurt, and I’m a bit tired. The Humen ferry is here
The ferry was free, just watch out for safety. Stage one done. Across the water is Nansha District. At first hearing it sounds like you’ve arrived at the Nansha Islands.
On the map, Nansha District doesn’t look big, so why does it take so long to ride through? The map says to go to Shunde and then to Zhongshan
I reached Tingjiao Bridge in Nansha District. In the opposite direction there’s Hengli Avenue, which the signs say goes to Zhuhai, and judging by the map it’s much shorter than going from Shunde to Zhuhai. The map is wrong — so I decisively took Hengli Avenue. The whole way was one bridge after another, dump trucks everywhere, the air was terrible — luckily I’d brought dust-protection gear. This slope is so high, absolutely exhausting; only up close did I realize it was a bridge.
Arrived in Zhongshan a bit after 18:00 in the evening. Not easy. Stage two done.
Found a Shaxian snack shop to eat at, then checked Baidu Maps for nearby hotels, found one with good reviews, and rested. On the 3rd I got up at 6:30 sharp, finished breakfast at exactly 7:00, and set off. Past the bridge is downtown Zhongshan
Through Zhongshan, onto the main road the map indicates, heading for Zhuhai. Right after leaving Zhongshan comes the Jinzishan Tunnel, then after another long stretch you reach Sanxiang. Housing prices around Zhongshan are so low — just over 3K per square meter. I can’t take it!
For the next stretch, the map’s route is all left turns and right turns, so I just found myself a road that was more or less straight and rode that. On the way, almost at Zhuhai, a few raindrops fell. Zhuhai, here I come.
Riding from Sanxiang to Zhuhai, it’s best to keep to the left — there’s a dedicated lane on the left. Passed by a village.
Follow the main road all the way down; turn right at the Zhuhai city government and you’re at the seafront, and the road that hugs the sea is Qinglv Road. Fisher Girl, here I come.
Alright, the ride is finally over. It’s already 12:30, and the weather report still says rain, so I’ll hang out for a while. Follow Qinglv Road to the very end and you reach the Gongbei Port (the one to Macau). I didn’t bring a travel permit, so I just looked. Across from Gongbei Port is the Gongbei bus station, so I found a restaurant to eat at. Both the ticket office and the waiting hall of Gongbei bus station are on the 2nd floor, so I decisively pushed the bike upstairs. I found a spot with no ticket window and locked the bike up, then queued to buy a ticket. The ticket is 100, and at the ticket gate you buy a checked-baggage ticket for 30. That’s where Zhuhai ends. The only regret is the rain — otherwise I would have stayed a few more days. Also, the bus only goes to Futian and Luohu, so you transfer to the metro yourself when you get there. This ride took only a day and a half in total; mostly when I got tired I pushed the bike for a while. There are quite a few slopes, and for the route I tried to look at the map and then find shorter roads myself — you can’t just follow the map entirely.
