The Shenzhen Special Zone Daily has published a report on the cleanliness, or lack thereof, of Yantian District’s Dameisha Beach after a local businessman complained that the beach was too filthy for his foreign guests.

On the evening of Friday July 5, Mr He and his two clients, an American and Canadian, decided it was too hot to stay inside, so went to Binhai Park on Dameisha beach. However, they only lasted 10 minutes in the water as they were sick of plastic bags and candy wrappers getting stuck to their bodies as they waded.

Binhai Park during better days, courtesy of Google Images

Having heard He’s complaint, a reporter went to Binhai Park on July 13 to see for himself what the fuss was about. He arrived there before lunchtime when there were already almost 10,000 people on the beach. The water was nowhere near as crowded as it would be a few hours later but the sand was already covered in bottles, candy wrappers, and the shells and cores of eaten pieces of fruit.

There were also plastic bags blowing around, and to top it all off, the reporter saw trash cans that were half empty.

A man at the beach named Mr Wang who lives in Buji told the paper that the problem was a lack of suzhi or character among some beach goers. But he also said that, considering the number of people who swim there, it is unrealistic to expect the water to be clean by international standards.

A Mr Qin who had come from Luohu District with his family described littering on the beach as “immoral as well as disgusting.”

Big things have small beginnings, courtesy of Sina Weibo

In other news about people lacking suzhi, a woman in Shenzhen’s Baoan District has drawn complaints from neighbours after gaining a reputation for regularly throwing garbage and even feces off the roof and directly onto the ground in her residential complex. You can see the news report, including footage of her in the act here.

But it’s not all bad news on the suzhi front. In recent days, the image on the right of a migrant worker cleaning up after himself on the subway has gone big on Sina Weibo.

The worker was overcome by some mild nausea, and when a stranger gave him a tissue to wipe his mouth, he first got down and cleaned the floor, a respected Panyu-based microblog has claimed.