Zhanjiang tide times

Zhanjiang sits on the Leizhou Peninsula in southern Guangdong, flanked by the Leizhou Bay to the east and the Beibu Gulf (Gulf of Tonkin's western extension) to the west. This southern exposure to the open South China Sea gives Zhanjiang the largest tidal range in Guangdong province: approximately 2.0 m mean range, rising to around 2.8 m on spring tides — compared to 1.0 to 1.5 m at Shenzhen and Zhuhai further north. The regime is mixed semidiurnal: two unequal high waters and two low waters per day, with the tidal inequality large enough to be significant for coastal users.

Zhanjiang is the southernmost major port in Guangdong and the main deepwater port for southern China's petrochemical industry. The port handles steel, iron ore, and petroleum products; a major integrated steel plant (Baosteel-WISCO Zhanjiang Steel Base, operational from 2015) operates on the northeast coast of Leizhou Bay. The port channel is dredged to 17 m below chart datum — one of the deepest in the South China Sea — to accommodate the 200,000 DWT ore carriers serving the steel plant.

Donghai Island (东海岛), connected to the Zhanjiang mainland by a 6 km causeway, is the second-largest offshore island in Guangdong. The eastern coastline of Donghai Island faces directly into the South China Sea and carries a 30 km beach — Dragon King Beach (龙王沙滩) — largely undeveloped, with windswept dune vegetation and wave-exposed sand. The beach is backed by low sand dunes and a coastal forest belt planted as windbreak. At low water, wave energy at Donghai is significantly higher than at the sheltered Leizhou Bay side: swell from the southeast refracted around the peninsula reaches the eastern shore with periods of 8 to 12 seconds in autumn and winter.

The mangrove forests of Zhanjiang National Nature Reserve are the most extensive mangrove ecosystem in China: approximately 20,000 hectares distributed across the tidal inlets and mudflats of Leizhou Bay and the Beibu Gulf coast. The reserve was designated in 1990 and is one of the few places in China where the full tidal cycle drives a functioning mangrove ecosystem at scale — mangrove aerial roots are exposed at low water and submerged to 0.5 to 1.5 m at high water. The reserve supports populations of egrets, cormorants, and the Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis); the dolphin population in the Beibu Gulf is one of the larger remaining groups in South China. Boat access to the mangrove channels is available from Zhanjiang's waterfront and from Lianjiang to the northeast.

The Leizhou Peninsula itself has a distinctive volcanic landscape in its interior — the Leiqiong World Geopark covers remnant volcanic cones and lava fields from eruptions that ended approximately 10,000 years ago. The peninsula's southern tip is 40 km north of Hainan Island across the Qiongzhou Strait; ferries cross the strait to Haikou every 1 to 2 hours.

Zhanjiang's seafood is the primary culinary identity: oysters from Leizhou Bay, mud crab, and the local speciality gejia zheng xie (steamed crab with egg custard) are served at the waterfront restaurants around the Beibu Gulf fishing harbour. The early morning fish market at the port (4:00 to 7:00) is one of the more chaotic and productive fish markets in southern China.

Tide predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. For authoritative official tide data for Zhanjiang and the Leizhou Peninsula, the State Oceanic Administration / National Hydrographic Centre (SOA/NHC) publishes official tide tables.