横琴島

Hengqin Island sits just off the southern coast of Zhuhai, connected to the mainland by bridge and lying immediately adjacent to Macau, with which it shares a border that has become one of the most closely watched development zones in the greater Bay Area. Over the past two decades Hengqin has been transformed from a quiet rural island into a purpose-built new district of resorts, theme parks, exhibition centers, and commercial zones, and it now functions as Zhuhai's principal concentration of large-scale tourism and entertainment attractions.

The island's character is defined less by any single landmark than by the density of attractions packed into its flat, reclaimed landscape. The Chimelong resort complex — including the Ocean Kingdom theme park, the Spaceship park, the Chimelong Show, and a cluster of themed hotels — occupies a large section of the island and draws the majority of its visitors, while the National Geographic Explorer Center, the Hengqin Port border crossing with Macau, and a growing stock of resorts, malls, and exhibition space fill in the gaps. Small wooded hills and a coastline of reclaimed shoreline survive in places between the developments, a reminder of the island's pre-development state, and the local oyster farms have given Hengqin a long-standing reputation among diners in the know as one of the best places in the region to eat fresh oysters.

For foreign visitors, Hengqin Island is best treated as the resort and entertainment district of Zhuhai, the destination of choice for families and for travelers whose priorities are theme parks, large hotels, or easy access to Macau via the Hengqin Port crossing. The island rewards a longer stay at one of the resort hotels rather than a quick day trip, since the scale of the attractions is too large to absorb in a few hours. The oyster restaurants clustered near the island's older settlements are a quieter, more local complement to the big-ticket attractions, and they pair well with an evening away from the theme park crowds.