月亮湾 Yuèliàng wān is the long crescent of sand on the coast of 阳西县 Yángxī xiàn, the western county of 阳江 Yángjiāng, and it is the finest beach in the city’s reach. The bay curves for several kilometres from the town of 沙扒 Shābā away towards a headland, a broad band of pale sand backed by a belt of sea-pines, with calm shallow water in front of it and the open sea beyond the point. The name means Moon Bay, and from the headland the shape of it is exactly that: a crescent of white laid along the coast. It is a beach for walking, swimming and doing very little.
The water is the reason the bay is so popular with families. It is shallow for a long way out, so you can wade a hundred metres and still be only chest deep, and the curve of the crescent shelters it, so the surf is gentle and the swimming is safe. The sand is fine and pale, and the sea-pine belt along the back of the beach gives shade in the middle of the day. In the morning the bay is glassy and largely empty; through the afternoon it fills; in the evening the light goes gold over the headland and the beach empties again. It is a place that rewards being there at the edges of the day.
The bay is part of the 沙扒 coast, and it is a working one as well as a holiday one. A little way along, the town’s harbour lands the day’s catch, and the restaurants behind the beach cook the 生蚝 shēng háo, oysters, the 花蟹 huā xiè, crabs, and the mantis shrimp that come off the boats. Behind the sand there is a coast path that climbs the headland at the western end and gives a view back over the whole crescent, which is the walk to do in the late afternoon, and a smaller bay, 沙扒湾 Shābā wān, sits just to the east of the main one. It is a coast with more than one beach on it.
What lifts 月亮湾 above the ordinary is the combination of the swimming and the food. Because the crescent is long, it rarely feels crowded even in high summer, and because the town behind it is a fishing one, the eating is good and plain and cheap. You can swim in the morning, walk the headland in the afternoon, eat oysters and crab in the evening, and do it all on foot from a room behind the pine belt. Come in the shoulder seasons for the calm water and the space, and avoid the hottest August weekends unless you like company. It is the beach the region is proudest of, and it earns it.
Practicalities
Tickets. The beach is open and free, with no entrance charge. The sun-loungers and umbrellas that appear on the busier stretches in summer are a small rental, usually ¥20 to ¥50, and the showers and changing rooms behind the beach are also small change.
Opening hours. The bay is open all day and all night. Swimming is best in daylight and in the calm of the morning; there is no lifeguard service in the evenings, and the water should be treated with care outside the patrolled hours.
Getting there. 月亮湾 is at 沙扒 in 阳西县, reached by road from 阳江 city in about an hour and a half. There is no rail station at the bay; 阳西站 Yángxī zhàn on the high-speed line is the nearest, from which you take a taxi of about forty minutes.
Closing day. The beach has no closing day and is open every day of the year. Swimming may be restricted in bad weather or heavy swell, when the flags go up, and the smaller bays can be cut off by a high tide around the headland.
flowcloud would say that a curve of sand a few kilometres long, shallow enough for a child to wade out into and calm enough to swim, behind a town that still lands its own fish, is a piece of coast that has no need of improvement, and that the best thing to do with it is almost nothing at all.
Getting there: 沙扒 in 阳西县 is the base, about an hour and a half by road from 阳江 city, and 阳西站 Yángxī zhàn on the high-speed line is the rail gateway; from there a taxi of about forty minutes brings you to the sand.