4 Days Chaozhou Shantou Tour with Chaoshan Culture and Nan’ao Island

After breakfast at the hotel, meet your guide and depart for Mayu Island, a small historic island located in Shantou’s inner bay. The island once served as a strategically important coastal-defense outpost and remained a restricted military area before opening to visitors in 1979.

Walk through the island’s coastal paths and village lanes, where fishing boats, wooden boardwalks, colorful wall paintings, sea-view platforms, and traditional temples create a distinctive maritime atmosphere. Important sites include the Old Mazu Temple, New Mazu Temple, Donghai Putuo Mountain Temple, Sea Dragon King Temple, Sea Goddess Statue, Mazu Seal Rock, Sea-Viewing Pavilion, Shuangzhong Temple, and nearby Luyu Lighthouse.

Continue toward Nan’ao Island, Guangdong’s only island county, by crossing the approximately 11-kilometer-long Nan’ao Bridge. Enjoy panoramic views of the South China Sea, offshore islands, fishing boats, and coastal hills as the vehicle travels across the bridge.

Visit Changshanwei Lighthouse, a striking red lighthouse near the western entrance to Nan’ao Island. Its location beside the cross-sea bridge, rocky shoreline, and blue water makes it one of the island’s most popular photography locations.

Drive along Nan’ao’s scenic coastal road and admire offshore fishing villages, marine farms, the island waterfront, and distant wind turbines on Windmill Mountain.

Enjoy an included Nan’ao seafood lunch, featuring fresh seasonal ingredients sourced from the surrounding waters.

After lunch, join a marine fishing and aquaculture experience. Board a local boat and travel through offshore oyster farms, where colorful floating buoys form striking patterns across the sea. Learn how oysters are cultivated and harvested, observe ecological sea-ranch operations, and enjoy views of the island’s hills, wind turbines, fishing boats, and coastal villages.

Depending on weather, tides, and safety conditions, guests may also take part in a simple oyster-harvesting activity, offering a hands-on introduction to how fresh seafood travels from the ocean to the dining table.

Continue to the Natural Gate, Nan’ao Island’s famous Tropic of Cancer landmark. Located at Qing’ao Bay, the structure combines astronomical, geographical, and natural concepts and marks an important point where the Tropic of Cancer reaches China’s eastern coastline.

Finish the day at Qing’ao Bay, known for its crescent-shaped beach, clear blue water, fine sand, coastal forests, and relaxed island atmosphere. Enjoy free time to walk along the beach, take photographs, collect shells, or relax beside the sea when conditions permit.

Return to Shantou in the late afternoon. Dinner is not included, allowing you to explore local restaurants, food streets, seafood stalls, or popular Chaoshan dining venues independently.

Meals: Hotel breakfast and Nan’ao seafood lunch included; dinner not included
Accommodation: Shantou city hotel

After breakfast, depart for Longhu Ancient Village, a well-preserved historic settlement famous for its layout of three main streets and six lanes.

More than one hundred ancestral halls, official residences, merchant mansions, academies, and temples are distributed throughout the village. Notable buildings include Fangbo Mansion, Jinshi Mansion, Tanhua Mansion, Xiuyi Mansion, Xu Clan Ancestral Hall, Longhu Academy, the Former Residence of Xia Yulai, and Tianhou Temple.

During the visit, admire traditional Chaoshan craftsmanship, including woodcarving, stone carving, shell carving, ceramic inlay, painted decoration, and lime sculpture. Door plaques, carved columns, stone drums, lions, mythical animals, folk paintings, and decorative roof details reflect architectural traditions from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

Guests may also take part in a Hong Tao Guo-making activity, learning how this peach-shaped rice cake is prepared and understanding its role in Chaoshan festivals, ancestral ceremonies, and family celebrations.

Continue to Chaozhou, a National Famous Historical and Cultural City. Visit the Han Yu Memorial Temple, built to commemorate the celebrated Tang Dynasty scholar and official Han Yu. Although he served in Chaozhou for less than eight months, he is remembered for promoting education, improving local administration, releasing bonded servants, and dealing with crocodiles that threatened residents along the river.

Enjoy lunch featuring authentic Chaoshan beef hotpot, one of the region’s most representative culinary experiences. Fresh beef is carefully divided into different cuts and briefly cooked in a light broth to preserve its tenderness and natural flavor.

Proceed to the Han River for an exterior view of Guangji Bridge, also known as Xiangzi Bridge. Famous for its stone piers, traditional pavilions, and movable pontoon section, the bridge is traditionally described as having “eighteen floating boats and twenty-four bridge piers.” Walking onto the bridge is optional and requires a separate entrance ticket.

Afterward, stroll along the Chaozhou Riverside Promenade, enjoying views of Guangji Bridge, Phoenix Pagoda, Guangji Gate Tower, the ancient city wall, riverside gardens, historic temples, and the surrounding hills.

Continue to Guangji Gate Tower, one of the most recognizable landmarks of Chaozhou Ancient City, before entering Paifang Street. The historic pedestrian street is lined with memorial archways, old shops, local snack stalls, tea stores, embroidery workshops, woodcarving boutiques, and regional specialty shops.

Walk through nearby Jiadi Lane, where traditional mansions preserve classic Chaoshan residential layouts such as Four-Point Gold houses, Si Ma Tuo Che compounds, and Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix courtyards.

Visit Kaiyuan Temple, one of the most important Buddhist temples in eastern Guangdong. Originally founded during the Tang Dynasty, the temple features grand halls, ceremonial courtyards, Buddhist statues, incense burners, decorative roofs, and carved architectural details.

Later, enjoy a complimentary Chaoshan Gongfu Tea and Chaozhou Opera experience in a century-old residence. Learn about local tea-brewing customs while discovering Chaozhou Opera, a regional theatrical tradition performed in the Chaoshan dialect and shaped by more than four centuries of history.

Depending on the schedule, guests may independently visit additional attractions such as Jilue Huanggong Ancestral Hall, Xu Imperial Son-in-Law Mansion, Haiyang Confucian Temple, or the Jao Tsung-I Academic Museum.

Return to the hotel in Shantou after sightseeing.

Meals: Hotel breakfast and Chaoshan beef hotpot lunch included; dinner not included
Accommodation: Shantou city hotel

After breakfast, check out of the hotel and begin the final day with a visit to Stone Fort Park, centered on the historic Qilu Fort. Constructed during the Qing Dynasty, the circular coastal-defense fortress once played an important role in protecting eastern Guangdong and later served as a filming location for the movie The Storm.

Continue with a sightseeing drive past modern Shantou landmarks such as People’s Square, the Seaside Promenade, Lin Baixin International Convention and Exhibition Center, and Times Square.

Proceed to the Small Park Historic District, the cultural and architectural heart of old Shantou. Its fan-shaped streets and rows of arcaded buildings preserve the atmosphere of the city’s prosperous commercial era during the early twentieth century.

See the former Nansheng Department Store, established in 1932 with investment from overseas Chinese merchants, and visit the ground floor of the historic Shantou General Post Office Building, completed in 1922 in a European architectural style.

Continue to Zhenbang Road Food Street, where traditional snack shops, long-established restaurants, refined Chaozhou cuisine establishments, and local food brands gather in one lively district. Lunch is arranged independently, allowing guests to choose dishes according to their preferences.

After lunch, board the Shantou Bay Ferry and cross the inner harbor, enjoying views of the city skyline, waterfront buildings, bridges, port facilities, hills, and boats from the water.

Visit the Chaoshan History and Culture Expo Center, a major cultural landmark facing Shantou Bay. Exhibitions introduce the shared heritage of Shantou, Chaozhou, and Jieyang, including traditional architecture, overseas Chinese history, folk customs, regional festivals, opera, embroidery, woodcarving, ceramics, tea culture, and cuisine.

Enjoy a dynamic Yingge Dance performance, one of the most powerful forms of intangible cultural heritage in the Chaoshan region. Combining southern martial arts, folk drama, percussion, and group formations, the performance draws inspiration from heroic characters in the Chinese classical novel Water Margin.

Conclude the sightseeing program at Queshi Scenic Area, a national 4A-rated attraction known for its coastal hills, unusual rock formations, caves, subtropical vegetation, traditional residences, and historic Western-style villas. Guests may choose to take the aerial cable car at their own expense for elevated views across Shantou Bay and the city skyline.

At the designated time, transfer to Jieyang Chaoshan International Airport, Chaoshan Railway Station, or another confirmed departure point, bringing the four-day Chaoshan journey to an end.

Meals: Hotel breakfast included; lunch and dinner not included
Accommodation: Tour ends

Please note: The order of attractions may be adjusted according to traffic, weather, tide levels, ferry operations, sea conditions, attraction opening hours, performance schedules, and other local circumstances. Admission to Guangji Bridge, ancient-city headsets, scenic-area vehicles, the Queshi cable car, and personal expenses are not included unless otherwise confirmed.