Shantou 汕头Shàntóu

About Shantou

Shantou grew from a fishing village into a treaty port opened to Western trade in 1860, and more than two million overseas Chinese, many of them in Thailand, trace their roots here. The Former Chaozhou Customs House and Qilu Fort recall the port's heyday, and across the harbour the Queshi Scenic Area keeps buildings from the treaty-port era. Out of town lie the beaches of Nan'ao Island and the mansions a Thai-Chinese merchant family built at Qianmei Village from 1910.

What to eat in Shantou

• Beef balls (牛肉丸)
• Chaoshan beef hot pot (潮汕牛肉火锅)

Listed sites in Shantou

14 sites in Shantou are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.

• Fantawild Adventure Shantou (Blue Water Planet) 方特欢乐世界·蓝水星 4A scenic area · on the map
  A science-fiction themed amusement park in Longhu district near the Shantou Bay Bridge, built with ride and show systems from the Fantawild group; official tourism lists now call it Blue Water Planet (Lanshuixing).
• Lianhua Peak, Chaoyang 莲花峰 4A scenic area · on the map
  A granite headland in Haimen town, Chaoyang, named for boulders split like lotus petals and tied by legend to the Song loyalist Wen Tianxiang, who is said to have watched here in vain for the fleeing Song emperor's ships in 1278.
• Lianhua Rural Tourism Area 莲华乡村旅游区 4A scenic area · on the map
  A rural tourism area in Lianhua town, north-east Chenghai, centred on Lianhua Mountain.
• Longhutan Beach Resort 中海龙虎滩 4A scenic area · on the map
  A sandy beach on Longhutan (Dragon and Tiger Beach) in Haojiang district, south of central Shantou; the scenic area, known until 2023 as the CITIC Golf Seaside Resort, now covers only the beachfront.
• Mayu Island 妈屿岛 4A scenic area
  A small island at the mouth of Shantou harbour, known in the treaty-port era as Double Island, where the American and British consulates and the port's first foreign-run customs house opened in 1860 before moving across the harbour during the 1860s.
• Nan'ao Island 南澳岛 4A scenic area
  Shantou's largest island and the seat of Nan'ao County, crossed by the Tropic of Cancer and linked to the mainland by the Nan'ao Bridge since 2015.
• Qianmei Village and Chen Cihong's Former Residence 前美古村·陈慈黉故居 4A scenic area · on the map
  An old village of overseas Chinese families in Longdu town, Chenghai, best known for the mansion compound the Chen family of overseas merchants built between 1910 and 1939.
• Queshi Scenic Area 礐石风景名胜区 4A scenic area · on the map
  A cluster of granite hills on the south shore of Shantou harbour, facing the old city across the water, with weathered boulders, caves, cliff inscriptions and harbour views from peaks such as Tashan and Yanfeng.
• Dadian Stupa, Lingshan Temple 大颠祖师塔 National heritage site · on the map
  A granite stupa of 824 behind Lingshan Temple in Tongyu town, the tomb of the Chan monk Dadian, who founded the temple in 791 and befriended the exiled Tang writer Han Yu.
• Former Chaozhou Customs House 潮海关旧址 National heritage site · on the map
  The two-storey customs house of 1919–1921 on Waima Road, wrapped in verandas and topped by a clock, which served the Chaozhou Maritime Customs and its successor until 1988.
• Former Headquarters of the Eastern Expedition 东征军总指挥部、政治部旧址 National heritage site · on the map
  Two matching two-storey buildings of 1924 on Waima Road, first a British-run hotel, which served as the command post and political department of the National Revolutionary Army after it entered Shantou in November 1925 during its Eastern Expedition against the warlord Chen Jiongming.
• Qilu Fort 崎碌炮台 National heritage site · on the map
  A circular Qing coastal fort of 1874–1879 on the Shantou waterfront, its thick walls built of granite and a mortar of shell lime, sand and glutinous rice, and ringed by a moat.
• Shantou Station of the Central Red Traffic Line 中央红色交通线汕头交通站旧址 National heritage site · on the map
  A three-storey arcaded shophouse on Haiping Road in Shantou's old town, which in the early 1930s housed the Huafu electrical shop, a front for a station on the Communist Party's secret courier line between its leadership and the Soviet areas.
• Wenguang Pagoda 文光塔 National heritage site · on the map
  A seven-storey octagonal brick pagoda in the old centre of Chaoyang, first built in 1131 under the Southern Song and rebuilt several times, most fully in 1635 and 1815.

On the map

Open Shantou on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)