Shantou

Shantou Introduction

Shantou is located in southeast of Guangdong, China, adjacent to the South China Sea. It is known as "the gateway of east Nanling Mountains and the communication hub of Southeast China" because of its advantageous geographical location. The city covers an area of 2,064 square kilometers and has a population of 4.795 million people. It has jurisdiction over six districts----Longhu, Jinping, Haojiang, Chenghai, Chaoyang, Chaonan and Nan'ao County. The SEZ itself takes up 234 square kilometers of the area.
　It's well known that Shantou is the famous hometown of overseas Chinese and o­ne of the largest emigration ports in modern China. At present, 3.35 million overseas Chinese, including Hong Kong and Macaonese are living in more than 40 countries and regions all around the world.

Shantou Traffic

By air:
Shantou Waisha Airport is 13 kilometres northeastward from the urban district of Shantou City. The airport provides many flight courses to main cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Changsha. You can get to most cities in China from here. Meanwhile, there is international scheduled flight to Bangkok too. It is quite convenient to travel by air.
There is a shuttle bus running between Waisha airport and the downtown area of Shantou. The bus fare is 10Yuan/person.

 Civil aviation ticket office
Address: Second floor of Bank of Communications mansion, No.83 East Jinsha Road.
Ticket office of the airport sales department
Address: in the domestic air terminal of Waisha Airport
Consultation telephone of Waisha Airport: 0754-8251915, 0754-8626678-2333
Telephone of free ticket delivery (Shantou area): 0754-8251915
Hotline of service supervision of Waisha Airport: 0754-8612317

Raiyway:
Shantou railway station is located in the eastern part of the city which covers an area of 633,333 square meters. The station enjoys convenient transportation. No.2, No.4, No.6, No.8, No.11 and No.12 buses could reach the plaza in the front of the railway station.
You can take trains from Shantou railway station to more than twenty major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. You can ask for the details by phone or o­n the internet.
Consultation telephone of Shantou railway station: 0754-6338814

Highway:
There are six Passenger Depots in Shantou City. They are Shantou passenger terminal, Nanxiang Passenger Depot, Xidi Passenger Depot, China Tourism Passenger Depot, Dongxia Passenger Depot and Jinsha East Passenger Depot.

Shantou coach terminal is located o­n No.7 Chaoshan Road. It is mainly responsible for the coaches to peripheral cities and cities of Guangxi, Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces. The consultation telephone is 0754-8222705. There’re express coaches to Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The direct coach from Shantou to Guangzhou sets out every o­ne hour from 7:35 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. everyday. The travel lasts for about five and a half hours. Two coaches from Shantou to Shenzhen set out every o­ne-hour from 6:10 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. everyday.

 China Tourism Passenger Depot is mainly in charge of the coaches to other cities in Guangdong Province and cities in Fujian Province.
Address: No.41 Shanzhang Road, Shantou. Consultation telephone: 0754-8629888-31245

 Jinsha East Passenger Depot is mainly in charge of the coaches to major cities in Guangdong Province. Address: Huanbizhuang, East Jinsha Road, Shantou. Consultation telephone: 0754-8265854

 Nanxiang Passenger Depot
Address: No.19 Chaoshan Road, Shantou.
Consultation telephone: 0754-8224943

 Dongxia Passenger Depot
Address: No.70 Dongxia Road, Shantou.
Consultation telephone: 0754-8626130

Ferry:
Shantou is closed to the water, so it is very convenient and timesaving to take ferry. There are many ferry stations in Shantou City. They are Ferry Dock of Shantou Passenger Depot, Ferry Dock of Shantou Port, Ferry Dock of Xidi Passenger Depot, Guangchang Ferry Station and Changshanwei Dock. All these docks offer short-distant ferries. Besides, there are special sightseeing activities every night in the summer o­n the west yacht dock of Guangchang Ferry Station. The activities include two sections. The first section is the dinner tour of the bay, which starts at 18:40. The second section is the night tour of the bay, which starts at 21:10. Floating o­n the water in cool summer night is really enjoyable and satisfied. You can take No.9, 12, 16, 17 and No.19 buses to the dock.

Hotline for tourists' complaints of Guangchang Ferry Station: 0754-8566445

 Changshanwei Dock mainly deals in the short-distant ferry from Changshanwei to Laiwu to provide people convenience.
Consultation telephone: 0754-5500214
Hotline for tourists' complaints: 0754-5500500

Public Bus
The fare of the public bus is usually 2 Yuan/person/ride, and there are some buses are 1 Yuan or 5 Yuan.

Taxi
According to different types of the cars, the taxies in Shantou are divided into two categories. The starting rate of the taxies in first category is 9 Yuan for the first 3 kilometers while the starting rate of taxies of second category is 7 or 8 Yuan. It's usually about 2.5 Yuan per kilometer afterwards.

Shantou Festivals

Spring festival: the first day of lunar new year." open the door" with firecrackers at dawn, men prepare sugar soup and changshou noodles for women. In the past time the portrait of ancestor would be hung up in the major room and the householder worship the ancestor, the younger generation hand in eggs and tea respectfully to the superior. There is also the custom in Fenshui area to invite relatives to feast. The floor are not to be swept and no knife or needles or something else with a sharp blade to be used. And then pay a New Year call the next day.

Dragon boat festival: also called "Duanwu festival". In the past days people decorate the door with herbal leaves, and smoke inside the house by burning herbs. Spread limes along side the wall and sometimes hung portrait of "zhongkui” to scare ghosts away, or stick charms o­n the door. o­n the day with no exception people eat rice dumpling and "five Guan"(yellow-fin tuna, yellow eel, vitellin, cucumber and king’s yellow liquor), in addition they boil meat with garlic. Children wear aroma bag, eat king’s yellow horse bean and smear king’s yellow o­n their foreheads. Doctors collect herbs for standby o­n the day. Before the day of the festival, grandmothers give their grandsons fans, bellybands, aroma bags and tiger headed shoes etc.

Shantou Service Telephones

Shantou City Tourism Bureau Tel: 0754-8293456, 8297610 Fax: 0754-8286555
Shantou tourism complaint phone: 0754-8297616

Shantou Tourism Quality Supervision and management of Tel: 0754-8297614

Shantou Jinping District Tourism Bureau call centres: 0754-8604761 Fax: 0754-8626858

Shantou Longhu District Tourism Bureau call centres: 0754-8831051 Fax: 0754-8831096

Shantou Hou Kong Tourism Board call centres: 0754-7386966 Fax: 0754-7386966

Chenghai area in Shantou Tourism Bureau call centres: 0754-5861480 Fax: 0754-5850350

Shantou's Chaoyang District Tourism Bureau call: 0754-3822059 Fax: 0754-3615871

Shantou Chaonan Qu Tourism Bureau call centres: 0754-7762589 Fax: 0754-7762578

Nan'ao County Tourism Bureau, Shantou, call centres: 0754-6806090 Fax: 0754-6803033