A man surnamed Liang brought a beach umbrella to Dameisha. However, he was told that private sunshades were not allowed in the park, Shenzhen TV reported Wednesday.
This meant he had to rent one from the park, which charges 80 yuan (US$12) for four hours with a deposit of 100 yuan.
“The park is open to the public and is free of charge. However, I think it would be better if we had more free choices,” said Liang.
The sunshades in Dameisha Beach Park are managed by a single company. The company has five rental points on the beach, providing about 1,200 beach umbrellas. During the high season, about 400 to 500 sunshades are rented per day.
The unified leasing system aims to ensure that the environment at Dameisha is kept neat and beautiful, a manager of the company said.
According to the park’s management office, tourists were allowed to bring their own sunshades when the park first opened. However, thieves would frequently use the sunshades as cover to commit theft.
Since the park adopted the unified leasing system for sunshades, there has been almost no cases of theft in the park, said the office.