BEIDAIHE is a rather bizarre seaside resort on the Bohai Gulf, 300km east of Beijing, which was originally patronized by European diplomats, missionaries and businessmen around the turn of the century, who can only have chosen it out of homesickness. Its coastline - rocky, sparsely vegetated, erratically punctuated by beaches - is reminiscent of the Mediterranean. They built villas and bungalows here, and reclined on verandahs sipping cocktails after indulging in the new bathing fad. After the Communist takeover, the village became a pleasure resort for Party bigwigs, reaching its height of popularity in the 1970s when seaside trips were no longer seen as decadent and revisionist. Strict rules ordered where individuals could bathe, according to their rank: West Beach was reserved for foreigners after they were let in in 1979, with guards posted to chase off Chinese voyeurs interested in glimpsing their daringly bourgeois swimming costumes. The Middle Beach, demarcated by rope barriers, was reserved for Party officials, with a sandy cove - the best spot - set out for the higher ranks. Dark swimsuits were compulsory, to avoid the illusion of nudity.
These days the barriers have gone, along with the inhibitions of the urban Chinese (skimpy bikinis are fashionable now), and the contemporary town is a fascinating mix of the austerely communist and the gaudy kitsch of any busy seaside resort. On the hill behind the beach, on leafy streets guarded by discreet soldiers, sit the villas of the Party elite. It's rumoured that every Politburo member once had a residence here, and probably many still do. All around are huge, chunky buildings, often with absurd decorative touches - Roman columns, fake totem poles, Greek porticoes - grafted onto their ponderous facades. These are work-unit hotels and sanatoriums for heroes of the people - factory workers, soldiers and the like - when they are granted the privilege of a seaside holiday. On the beach, stirring revolutionary statues of lantern-jawed workers and their wives and children stand among the throngs of bathers, while on the beachfront behind them stalls sell Day-Glo swimsuits and sculptures of chickens made of shells and raffia.
Though you still see serious men in uniforms and sunglasses licking lollipops, and black Audis with tinted windows (the Party cadre car) cruising the waterfront, these days most of Beidaihe's visitors are ordinary, fun-loving tourists, usually well-heeled Beijingers. In season, when the temperature is steady around the mid-20s Centigrade and the water warm, it's noisy and crowded, and a fun place to spend the day. Everyone is here simply to enjoy themselves, and you'll see the Chinese looking their most relaxed
The Town and beaches
The streets along the seafront are the liveliest - most buildings are either restaurants, with crabs and prawns bobbing about in buckets outside, or shops selling bikinis, inflatables, snorkels and souvenirs. Moving away from the sea, up the hill, the tree-lined streets are much quieter, and many of the buildings are guesthouses.
Of the three beaches, Middle Beach , really many small beaches with rocky outcrops in between, is the most convenient and popular. The promenade at the back is lined with soft-drink vendors, photo stalls, hoopla games, and bathing huts that look like moon dwellings from a 1950s science fiction movie. You can get your photograph taken on top of a stuffed tiger or in a cardboard speedboat, or dressed up like an emperor. West Beach is more of the same, but a little quieter. East of the resort (bus #3 or #4), stretching fifteen kilometres to Qinhuangdao, is East Beach , popular with cadres and sanatorium patients for its more sedate atmosphere. The beach is long enough for you to be able to find a spot where you can be alone, though much of the muddy shoreline is not very attractive. At low tide its wide expanse is dotted with seaweed collectors in rubber boots. At the beach's western tip is Pigeon Nest Park , a twenty-metre-high rocky outcrop named after the seagulls fond of perching here, obviously by someone who wasn't hot on bird identification. It's a popular spot for watching the sunrise. Mao sat here in 1954 and wrote a poem, "Ripples sifting sand/Beidaihe," which probably loses something in translation. To get here take bus #21 from Zhonghaitan Lu.
Just before Pigeon Nest Park, the bus stops near the dock for Beidaihe's sight-seeing boats . In season, boats leave regularly during the day and chug up and down the coast, which isn't really that spectacular (2hr; ¥30). The highlight of the trip is passing the strange Biluo Pagoda , a hotel on the coast south of the dock, which resembles a seven-storey concrete conch shell.
On the far western side of town, 500m back from the beach, Lianfengshan Park , a hill of dense pines with picturesque pavilions and odd little caves, is a good place to wander and get away from the crowds for a while. On top of the hill is the Sea Admiring Pavilion , which has good views of the coast. There are also a couple of unexciting historical sites and the quiet temple, Guanyin Si .
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