沙渔塘 Shāyútáng is a fishing community under 海尾镇 Hǎiwěi Zhèn on the north-western shore of 昌江黎族自治县 Chāngjiāng Lí Zú Zìzhì Xiàn, facing the 北部湾 Běibù Wān, the Gulf of Tonkin, less than ten kilometres from the town seat and about five from the hotels of 棋子湾 Qízi Wān. A hundred-odd households have fished here for generations. What changed the village was a television programme: in 2022 the sixth season of 向往的生活 Xiàngwǎng de Shēnghuó, the Hunan TV reality show published in English as Back to Field, filmed at the house the village calls the 蘑菇屋 Móogū Wū, the Mushroom House, and after it aired the village’s sea wall, beach and original coastal forest, in the province paper’s words, 惊艳全网, dazzled the whole internet.
The fame arrived on top of two years of unglamorous work. From 2019 the town government used an environment campaign to redo the village – rain and sewage separated, septic tanks and a sewage station in, dirt lanes paved, a coastal boardwalk built, and the stone houses kept 修旧如旧 xiū jiù rú jiù, repaired as old. The county then built the show’s legacy out deliberately: the Mushroom House kept and upgraded, a beach leisure club, beach buggies, a tent camp, sunset swings and a 鲨鱼堂 Shāyú Táng restaurant beside it, a 3,000-square-metre grouper farm by the county’s September 2024 account, and a visitor centre and seaside library planned against a target of a million visitors a year that 中新网 Zhōngxīn Wǎng recorded in August 2023. Even the fame has a lottery in it: in 2025 the community drew lots for ten tourist stalls, and the fisherman 何文富 Hé Wénfù who won one became the paper’s rural tourism shopkeeper.
The beds are fisher houses let room by room, and they are small. In August 2023 the count was four homestays and one restaurant. 陈用标 Chén Yòngbiāo raised money in 2020 and opened sixteen rooms that fill every holiday – his rooms could not be had without booking ahead, he told the province paper – and 陈为鹏 Chén Wéipéng, a returned migrant worker, opened ten rooms in February 2024, some facing the sea. On 同程 Tóngchéng checked on 30 September 2026 the named prices were 海忆民宿 Hǎiyì Mínsù at 29 二区 in 沙渔塘村 from 154 yuan, 观海民宿 Guānhǎi Mínsù at 67 一区 from 148, and 昌江海塘旅租 Chāngjiāng Hǎitáng Lǚzū at 07 南边村 from 164, in a 150-to-250 band that goes full on holidays, with ratings from 4.2 to 4.9. The village’s own secretary complained to 中新网 in 2023 that there were too few things to do beyond the sea and the tide; a Shanghai visitor in the same piece called it the prettiest sea she had ever seen.
When the village is full, the fallback is 海尾镇 itself and the wetland behind it. The town streets hold about ten economy lodgings on 2-star platform labels – 桂迎民宿 Guìyíng Mínsù, 海客之乡 Hǎikè Zhīxiāng, 唐嘉民宿 Tángjiā Mínsù and 正和民宿 Zhènghé Mínsù among them, ten to twenty rooms each – and on 30 September 2026 they quoted from 93 yuan at 林生旅租 Línshēng Lǚzū on Ctrip, 131 at 桂迎, 139 at 唐嘉 rated 4.9, and 198 for a sea-view king at 美好时光客栈 Měihǎo Shíguāng Kèzhàn in 海市村 Hǎishì Cūn. 唐嘉’s branch by the 昌江核电站 Chāngjiāng Hédiànzhàn, the nuclear station that sits in 海尾镇, rates 4.6 serving the plant’s contractor trade. The wetland is the other reason to stay: 海尾国家湿地公园 Hǎiwěi Guójiā Shīdì Gōngyuán at 石港塘 Shígǎngtáng covers 4,448 mu of marsh and coastal wetland with 255 vascular plants and 39 bird species on its lists, best in winter and spring, and it already carries three hotel villas and five seaside timber cabins reported built in 2016, with units on sale from 428 yuan – the dearest bed in the 海尾 system.
What the Rooms Are Like
A room in 沙渔塘 is a fisher family’s room, and it behaves like one: a firm bed, a tiled bathroom, a window on the lane or the sea wall, and the smell of the tide somewhere below. The stone houses kept by the 修旧如旧 rule have thick walls and small openings; the newer builds are plainer and brighter. The town lodgings are strictly practical, and the wetland cabins are the only wooden ones. What you cannot order is seafood in the closed season: from about May to August the fishing ban holds, the village turns to serving tourists, and one May 2026 Trip.com reviewer noted there was little seafood beyond farmed and frozen.
Practicalities
Price. On 30 September 2026 the village quoted 148 to 164 yuan for its named houses and 150 to 250 for the band as a whole, going full on holidays; the town lodgings ran 93 to 198 and the wetland hotel units from 428. The closed season from about May to August is the cheap half of the year and the sea is at its calmest from October to April. Every figure is a snapshot that floats.
Address. 沙渔塘社区 Shāyútáng Shèqū sits in 海尾镇 Hǎiwěi Zhèn, 昌江黎族自治县 Chāngjiāng Lí Zú Zìzhì Xiàn, facing the Gulf of Tonkin, less than ten kilometres from the town seat and about 5.6 kilometres from the 万国 hotel at 棋子湾. The named houses are numbered inside the village – 67 一区, 29 二区, 07 南边村 – and the wetland lies 23 kilometres from the 西线高速 Xīxiàn Gāosù motorway and 45 from the county town by the county’s own figures, while the town shuttle from 石碌 covers 60.
Rooms. Ask whether the window faces the sea or the lane, because some of the ten-and-sixteen-room houses have both. Ask whether meals are served, because the restaurant count in the village began at one. Ask what the seafood is in your month, since the closed season decides it. And book ahead for holidays and the October-to-April window – the family that runs the sixteen rooms says hers have not been walk-in available in years.
Getting there. There is no station in the village and the county’s high-speed stop is 棋子湾站 Qízi Wān Zhàn in 乌烈镇 Wūliè Zhèn, from which the 棋子湾旅游公路 Qízi Wān Lǚyóu Gōnglù and a hired car are the direct way, some fifteen to twenty kilometres. From 石碌镇 Shílù Zhèn a shuttle bus runs to 海尾镇, 60 kilometres with departures roughly every fifteen minutes between 6:00 and 18:30 on the county timetable, and the wetland itself needs a motorbike transfer at the end. Driving from the county town takes about an hour.
Where to stay: a sea-facing room at 观海民宿 Guānhǎi Mínsù or one of 陈用标 Chén Yòngbiāo’s sixteen at 海忆民宿 Hǎiyì Mínsù if you came for the Mushroom House and the beach, a 139-yuan room at 唐嘉民宿 Tángjiā Mínsù in 海尾镇 Hǎiwěi Zhèn if you are driving the west coast on a budget, and a wetland cabin or villa if the birds are the point, all of them in 海尾镇 Hǎiwěi Zhèn, 昌江黎族自治县 Chāngjiāng Lí Zú Zìzhì Xiàn. Come between October and April, when the season and the birds agree.
flowcloud would say that a village a television crew rented for a season has learned to charge for the view it always had, and that the correct way to sleep here is in a fisher family’s spare rooms rather than a hotel, because the tide timetable is better company than a minibar.