Dapeng Fortress

Dapeng Fortress was built in 1394 as one of the coastal garrisons defending the Pearl River approaches against pirates, and its walls, gates and grid of lanes survive within modern Shenzhen, a city that otherwise has almost nothing older than the 1980s. The town's abbreviated name, Peng, remains Shenzhen's traditional shorthand. Inside are the general's residences, notably the mansion of Lai Enjue, who commanded here during the nineteenth-century conflicts on this coast, along with ancestral halls, temples and lanes of grey brick houses. The surrounding Dapeng peninsula holds Shenzhen's best beaches and the Yangmeikeng coast.

History

Dapeng Fortress was built in 1394, in the Ming dynasty, as a garrison town to protect this coast from pirates, and it held out against a siege of more than forty days in 1571. Under the Qing it was the base of the Dapeng naval camp, which watched over forts along the coast as far as Lantau, and it grew into a town whose short name, Peng, gave Shenzhen its nickname Pengcheng; it was listed as a protected site by Shenzhen in 1983 and by Guangdong in 1989, and the Dapeng Ancient City Museum opened in May 1996 (Wikipedia, Dapeng Fortress).

The main sights

• The Ming walls and gates - the fortress circuit and its entrances.
• The general's mansions - Qing officers' residences within the walls.
• The lanes - grey brick houses and ancestral halls inside the fortress.
• The peninsula coast - beaches and headlands beyond the town.

When to go

October to April for the mildest weather; summer is hot, humid and typhoon-prone, though the beaches are busiest then. Weekends bring Shenzhen day trippers to both the fortress and the coast.

Before you go

Parts of the fortress have been restored commercially with shops and cafés. It is a long trip from central Shenzhen, over an hour by bus. Some houses charge separately and interpretation is mostly in Chinese.

Nearby

Shenzhen's beaches are on the same peninsula; Hong Kong lies across the bay.

Key facts