While Shenzhen is very popular with Hong Kongers nowadays, who head there for dining, shopping and other services, there are also some fine parks that are easily reached by taxi, or the extensive Metro (subway) network.
Bijia Shan Park
This park is in the north of Fujian district, around 4km north of Lok Ma Chau/Huangang Port; wooded hills and small lakes make for a pleasant contrast from the neighbouring urban areas.
Below the hills, Bijia Shan Sports Park – near Donggualing Station on Metro Line 10, is a leisure area where people can play sports including table tennis and badminton outdoors. There’s a place with exercise equipment that’s surprisingly hi-tech for a free facility – like exercise bikes with digital readouts including distance travelled, energy burned. Nearby is an area with open grassy areas and a small foodstall or two.
If you feel hungry, you don’t have to buy from a place here; it’s possible to order from a nearby outlet like KFC or McDonald’s, and a drone will soon arrive from the skies above, and descend to a kiosk rooftop with your order.
North/northeast of the sports park, there are hillside trails, including steep flights of steps to the top of the highest peak.
At the 178-metre summit, there’s the remains of a Japanese fortification that was built around the time of the Second World War. There’s little to see of this now other than a wall or two of granite blocks; but the hilltop does afford views over the city, and to hills in Hong Kong, including Tai Mo Shan.
Shenzhen Bay Park
Viewed from Hong Kong places like Mai Po nature reserve over the years, Shenzhen’s growth has seemed like little more than rampaging urban sprawl – as also evident from space: Landsat-7 20 Year Urbanization of Deep Bay near Shenzhen, China. Yet it has developed several wetland parks and related protected areas, as outlined in Exploring wonderful wetlands in Shenzhen.
These include a couple of parks and the Futian Nature Reserve along the north shore of Deep Bay, The reserve is like a counterpart of Mai Po and may be similarly off-limits without prior permission, but the parks are accessible.
However, Shenzhen Bay Park is open to the public – and is akin to a sliver of greenery along around 8km of the north shore of Deep Bay; close to Shenzhen Bay Park Metro station. There are a wide walkway and footpaths just above the shoreline, and across grassy areas beneath trees, making it a good place for strolling. Though Google Maps notes “beaches”, the tide here actually exposes mudflats, so looking for shorebirds and more may be rewarding (a Black-faced Spoonbill flew past when we visited).
Based on a winter visit, at high tide many Common Black-headed Gulls and ducks – Eurasian Wigeon and Northern Shoveler – may be close to the shore; and it has become very popular for people to throw some food to the gulls, with the ducks maybe getting at least crumbs.
The nature reserve lies to the east of the park; and it turns out walking alongside this is not much fun – better, perhaps, to take a taxi if you opt to head to the Futian Mangrove Ecological Park.
Futian Mangrove Ecological Park
The Futian Mangrove Ecological Park is also open to the public, but is maybe less visited than Shenzhen Bay Park – and so may be more pleasant to visit, especially for birding.
It’s a landscaped area with trees, areas of grass, small shrubs, along with several ponds. While the ponds held little during a visit I made (a Black Bittern that had attracted photographers earlier in the winter had gone), a rather small tidal inlet with mudflat was better for ducks and egrets etc; it’s overlooked by a nicely made hide.
Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden
Fairy Lake Botanical Garden lies east of Shenzhen Reservoir, and in turn east of the main Shenzhen city area. While there are 12 themed areas of the botanical gardens, this is not some dull, formal place of interest mainly to hotshot botanists; instead think of rolling wooded parkland around a small lake – and with the slopes of 944-metre Wutong Shan to the east.
While there’s an entrance just by the north fringe of Liantang District (a few minutes’ walk from Biahua Road Metro station, on Line 2), the main area, around Fairy Lake, is roughly 2km away.
There’s a pleasant, easy circuit of the lake, which is scenic. A cafe by the north shore could be a good place for lunch; though note you have to scan a code [such as with WeChat Pay] to order. It’s close to a tree planted by Deng Xiaoping, where gently sloping grassland makes a fine area to chill out, perhaps picnic.
Several paths and a narrow road lead up from the lake, including to Hongfa Temple. This is a very grand temple complex, and is relatively new, built from 1985 to 1992. While there are traditional style buildings, with Buddhist statues and so forth, there’s even an underground car park. Above it, the 21-metre tall Dragon Pagoda is reportedly a good place to admire scenery, and a vantage for monitoring fires.
Rather than walk all the way back to the main entrance, an option could be to take a shuttle bus from near the lake below the temple.
