Shenzhen Downtown Shopping Area Walking Tour | Shenzhen Happy Harbor Park | 4K HDR | 深圳欢乐海岸
Happy Harbor (originally OCT Bay) is fast becoming one of Shenzhen’s top destinations for leisure, dining, and shopping. Actually, I think it probably has the potential to build a reputation well beyond Shenzhen considering the level of investment. It’s also on my list of must-see places on a Shenzhen trip.
Happy Harbor is located in Nanshan District of Shenzhen close to the well-known Window of the World theme park and the several other attractions that feature in this area which include Happy Valley, Splendid China, and Holiday Plaza. The OCT Bay development covers a staggering 1.25million sqm and features a large shopping mall, a lake, a beach, canal, restaurants, bars and leisure activities. The place is a pleasure to walk around, one because it’s so new and clean, two because of thoughtful design that merges modernity with traditional styles. The area features beautifully wide pedestrian only walking paths that weave it’s way past the shopping mall, exhibition centre, bars and restaurants, leading down to the IMAX cinema, the water show and the beach. The restaurants in the area include South Beauty, Le Maris, Shanghai Min, Trattoria Da Angelo, Old House, Kyoku Tepanyaki and many more, which are positioned either beside the lake or alongside the canal making for a very peaceful.
It’s especially peaceful also due to the fact that there are no views of traffic, or the everyday hustle and bustle, just peaceful waters and people strolling the pedestrian paths. It really is an oasis in the middle of an urban jungle. There also Shenzhen’s second IMAX theater here, the China Film International Movie Cinema, which looks impressive, plus, there is China’s very first drive-through McDonalds which I’m sure is a bit of a novelty for many of China’s motoring public. The area is certainly aimed at the upmarket diner and shopper but it’s very open to everyone and quite a relaxing place to just hang out and escape from the hustle and bustle. The shopping mall, O’Plaza (originally OCT Harbor Happy Mall) features along with shops and cafes, features a business centre and the Dream Aquarium.
In total, the mall will offer 80,000 sqm of retail, dining and leisure space. There a major tourist information center near the IMAX and there is also the Bay Breeze Hotel which is a resort aimed at the upper market. The development will also feature Marriot Executive Apartments with 155 guest rooms. Across from the Happy Harbor is OCT Wetland, have not been in there yet but looks like an interesting eco-park, more to come later.
The great thing about the whole area, you can freely go there without spending a cent and wander the walking paths around the shops and canals enjoying the peaceful feeling. Getting there: From the bus stop out the front of Holiday Plaza (across from Window of the World) take the B603 bus, which is one of the small orange buses which have a fixed price, so there’s no need to tell a conductor which stop. As for what stop to get off, it’s the one after ‘Binhai Hospital’ being ‘Whitehead Road East’. There is also a bus stop on Binhai Avenue.
With a total area of 1.25 million square meters, Happy Harbor combines the varied concepts of culture, ecology, tourism, entertainment, shopping, hotels, dining and nightlife into one ambitious new venue. Happy Harbor looks set to develop into China’s most fashionable international entertainment destination. Happy Harbor is located in the central business district of Shenzhen Bay, nestling between Binhai Boulevard and the group of OCT theme parks at Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town. Happy Harbor boasts many firsts for the country: the first international waterfront shopping complex, the first large-scale multimedia water show theatre, the first high-end cultural and commercial exhibition center, the first five-star flagship cinema and world-class office and hotel facilities.
Every year, the OCT Carnival, the OCT Dragon Boat Festival, the Happy Harbor International Music Festival and other large-scale events will all be staged here, linking together with the world’s most ambitious multimedia water-themed stage show, the “Mangrove Groove”. Happy Harbor was conceived not only to become a unique nature reserve. It features a true urban ecological reserves, in the form of the OCT Wetland park and Coco Beach, which will link together with the OCT theme park group, the Binhai Seaside Promenade, and the Hongshulin Mangrove Forest conservation area to form a large scale eco-tourism complex.
2021-09-24 13:08
