I must report about this island i went to last weekend, it's an amazing place to have so close for the Shanghai/south Jiangsu crowd!

It's an island called sheng si dao, about 50km south east off the the coast of shanghai. Type 嵊泗县 into chinese google maps and you'll find it.

A ferry goes out there everyday at 11am, leaving from lu chao gang (芦朝港), a port to the south of shanghai. Passengers are 90yuan, bikes 55, sidecars 85. The ferry takes 3 hours. I don't know what time the ferry back is at because i got the wrong one back (more on that later)

the island isn't big, and tourism is beautifully underdeveloped. it's all mountains and beaches, with little winding concrete roads twisting around the coast and over the mountains. outside the main town there are lots of little fishing villages, houses are built up the hills on top of each other in a very mediterranean style (but dirtier).

my girlfriend and i found a nice place to camp beside the big north beach. there's a paying entrance for that beach on the west end, or you can drive out the east end and just walk on! there are a myriad seafood restaurants on the island, i think that's actually supposed to be the main attraction. the food is fresh, but expensive. even without the laowai tax.

not much else to say really, i was just very impressed that such a beautiful little place exists so close to the suzhou/shanghai diesel cloud. we could actually see stars at night, lots of them! highly recommended!































as i said before we got the wrong ferry on the way back. it dropped us off at xiao yang dao (小洋岛) which is a giant port also off the coast of shanghai. it's connected to the mainland by a very long bridge, which is handy, but that bridge is a highway and therefore illegal for motorbikes, which is less handy. however since it was the only way off the island and i had to work the next day, we decided to give it a shot. two kilometers onto the bridge, we were caught up to by the highway patrol, sirens blazing. there was much talk on the walkie talkies, more police coming to join the party, many cigarettes handed out and so many times explaining i got the wrong ferry and i don't know how else to get home, they agreed to let us take the bridge!














If anyone needs more details feel free to ask!