Zhuhai Transportation

By air: The Zhuhai Airport has flights to dozens of domestic cities such as Beijing (3hrs), Shanghai (2hrs), Chongqing (2hrs) and Haikou (1hr). (See the full list). The airport lies 40 kilometres from downtown, so a trip can cost RMB100 or more. But there is CAAC shuttle bus service to and from the CAAC Office on the intersection of Yuehua Lu and Yingbin Dadao.

By train: The Guangzhou-Zhuhai railway is under construction. So until now, there is no railway to Zhuhai. But you can still buy Guangzhou tickets in Zhuhai since the ticket offices are hyper-linked, which is convenient if you don't have time to buy a ticket in Guangzhou.

By bus: 137 kilometres south of Guangzhou on the Zhujiang Delta, the city is conveniently connected by highways with other cites around. There are frequent busses to Guangzhou (RMB55), usually with a half an hour interval. Air-conditioned busses head for Beihai (1 daily; RMB110), Shenzhen (frequent; RMB70), Shaoguan (2 daily; RMB78), Shantou (5daily; RMB150), Foshan (3daily; RMB50), Zhongshan (frequent; RMB15), Dongguan (frequent; RMB52) and Panyu (1 daily; RMB39) are also available at the long distance bus station in the Gongbei District.

By Water: Ferries depart from the ferry port in Jida. They go between Zhuhai and several other cites, including Guangzhou (2daily; RMB24), Wuzhou (3daily; RMB18), Shenzhen (fast boat; 15 minute intervals; HK$116), Hong Kong (about 2 hour intervals; about HK$180; journey takes about 1 hour).

City transport: About 30 public bus lines run in Zhuhai at normal service hours from 06:00 to 22:00. Zhuhai taxis (starting price RMB10) are among the most expensive in China. Minibus is an alternative, cheap and fast. There's now also a tourist coach (only RMB2; 15m intervals) which goes from Zhuhai Hotel to The Four Grand Buddhist Mount.

......See Next

I would like to share my unpleasant experience in Zhuhai to alert others so you won't be in the same plight as me.

We were in Zhuhai for 2 days in end of March 2010. As we traveled in a big group (10 of us) including 3 teenagers and one elderly, we decided to rent a van to bring us around. On the first night of our arriving, we met a van driver who fetched us back from Wan Zai Seafood Street. He quoted us RMB500 (after a few calls to his friend) for a day tour on the following day. We didn't take him because it was rather expensive and we found him a bit fishy. He tried to keep a big distance from us while talking on the phone and not honest in some ways.

On the second day morning, we saw a tout outside of our hotel offering to fetch us with RMB150/day. This guy (name: 彭玉宽) very friendly and quite decent to us. Without having to bargain (since it's more than 50% cheaper) we took his offer. But after that we were brought to an old van with another driver who claimed that he was one of the staff of the local travel agency. His pic is attached. He didn't tell us upfront where he's going to bring us until we asked a few times. He briefly told us which are the tourist spots and there was no prefixed duration as long as we were happy toured by him. Sounded as a very easy going person. But later we found out all the places that he brought us to were those places he could make commission out of the tickets. For the places that we wanted him to bring us to, he rushed us. Some of the sightseeing places he just let us see from far, didn't even let us got down to take photos by saying there was nothing much. It is really ridiculous. At the end we didn't manage to go to the most famous tourist spot of Zhuhai - Yunv (珠海渔女).

The most terrible part was he brought us to some local souvenir stores, forced us to attend 2 Chinese medicine talks (meant for tourists to understand more about their local products). If we sit in the talk for at least 30min, he could get RMB20/head . We obviously unhappy about it and left after a short stay. He then scolded us for not corporate with him. We had a big fight at most time but couldn't do much because he was holding our Ocean Spring tickets that cost RMB1280 in total. Yea, we were too careless about this. In the beginning, he frankly told us if we bought the tickets from him he won't charge extra to drive us to the hot spring which located about 1 hour journey from town. Since there is no different in price by getting the tickets directly from Ocean Spring, we took the deal.

At the end, we only had 2 and a half hour in the hot spring, in the evening with cold weather. Obviously we didn't enjoy much because it was late and at hunger condition. After hot spring he tried to persuade us to have dinner at our hotel area which was another 1 hour journey. Reason being: he needed rest!! At the end of the day, he some more asked for extra money as OT!

We felt being cheated and threaten on the entire journey. I am rather surprise place like this that won a series of titles such as “Top Tourist City of China”, should have a better control of the touts or illegal travel agents. We saw quite a number of aggressive touts outside of the hotels.

1 more image

You can walk across the border from Macau at Gongbei. The border is open from 7am to midnight. (visa on arrival counter is available)

An alternative crossing is via the Lotus Bridge in Macau's Cotai area to the island of Hengqin. This border crossing point is open 8AM-8PM. After crossing the Macau side, take a shuttle bus across the bridge to the China side . From the Hengqin side of the border take bus number 14 to Xiangzhou, or catch one of the Kee Kwan air-conditioned minibuses to Wanzai or Gongbei.

1 more image

To go to ZhuHai from Hongkong is very simple and it takes 70 minutes to reach there from Hongkong by using China Ferry. There are two china ferry terminal in Hongkong namely in kowloon area and HongKong island. The single ticket price from Hongkong to Zhuhai is around HKD 183.00 and from Zhu Hai ( Zhu Hai Jiu Zhou port ) to Hongkong is around 165.0 yuan. There are two ways to return to HongKong. You can either
1. Take china ferry terminal from Zhu Hai Jiu Zhou port to Hongkong ( Hongkong Island)
2. Take china ferry terminal form Zhu Hai Jiu Zhou Port to Hongkong International Airport.

We visited Shenzhen and travelled by bus.

It is about 10 Euro (80 yuan) and lasts for 2 1/2 hours.
It is an AC bus with only seats, and you'll get a bottle of water, that is nice huh?

The way to Shenzhen is quite interesting because it is real Chinese area.

You will have bus-stops on the road and check-ups by police people ...

Ehm... we travelled without a permit of visa, so we had to be careful!

Although it was fun!

Schedule Zhuhai / Shenzhen:
Daily every half hour
08.00 - 08.30 - 09.00 - 09.30 ... ... ...
until 19.30 hrs

Crossing the Chinese border out of Macau to Zhuhai we experienced by bus (line 28a from Macau), and on foot. To avoid all kind of problems at the border we just walked on by ...

You have to arrange your visa to entry China. That tourist visa (for sight seeing) will be marked with an "L" and is for a short duration of stay (about 30 days), no longer than 90 days. Be sure you will get your visa in time.

There is a trick to do it in a more easy way ...

There is also a "group visa", like travelling for foreigners and is not issued on your passport. You will get a seperate paper that requires the members of the group and exit together the Chinese border. The group has to be at least for 3 members and cost about 15 Euro pro each. The only loss is you donot get a stamp in your passport though can stay in China in a fast, and cheap way (officially you have to pay about 150 Euro pro each! ). Do NOT loose that marked paper!!!

So we visited Zhuhai in the last way and just walked on by the Chinese border ... to Zhuhai!

At Zhuhai, the Gongbei border crossing has an underground pedestrian walkway and plaza with shops on both sides of the border. There is the China and Macao immigration and custom check points.

While Macao does not require visas for Malaysians and most visitors, returning from Macao to China will use up another China entry visa unless you have multiple entry China visa.

Also if you are taking a express bus out of Zhuhai to other Shenzen, Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguang, Humen or other towns of Guangdong, remember that the last departing bus is often between 7pm-8:30pm. So if you are taking a day trip to Macau, remember to come back on time.

Take the ferry from Kowloon Side of Harbour City Ferry Terminal. The whole journey takes only 1 hr and 10 mins. Then you can take the taxi to go to Yuen Ming Shin Yuen just only 20 mins. Besides the Garden, you will find a Chinese medicine hot spring of the right hand side. What a wonderful hot spring ! You can try there also chinese doctor who can "check you up" , then the doctor will make a script of medicine for you to have a private bath with chinese medincine. Well, actually it is not expensive and worth trying ! The name of the hotel is " Chung Yao Zhui".