Monday, June 25, 2018

Beihai

For Yen's birthday, I decided to take her to Beihai, an old colonial port city on the Guangxi coast. We left at 8:30 Saturday morning on the 90 minute train ride from Nanning, and got the train back at 4pm Sunday. Enough time to see the city and relax.

We arrived at 10 an went straight away to the old colonial district. Beihai was one of the treaty ports opened up after 1876 and, for a brief period, it had a small boom. British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese merchants set up shop along the north end of the city (which is built on a peninsula that juts out westward in to the South China Sea). However, by 1900 it was clear that Beihai would not be another Shanghai or Hong Kong, and most of the merchants pulled up and left before the outbreak of WWI. What is left then, is a few blocks of decaying 19th and early 20th century building, with only the first floors being maintained.

Zhuhai rd

Old colonial ruins



However, it was very hot and so after a couple hours we opted to head to our hotel. Being that it was Yen's birthday I opted for a good hotel. We got the only in China named "Golden Shining New World Grand Hotel" with an ocean view and a balcony. It was actually a couple blocks back from the ocean, but still a great view. It also had a Chinese restaurant that had some of the best Chinese food I have had here. Definitely a place I would stay again.

After a couple hours hiding from the sun we decided to head out to the beach. Silver beach stretches for several kilometres along the south side of the city. There are two sections of the beach, one free and one not. The free section was nice but crowded and dirty. Beer cans and plastic forks floating in the sea.

However, the pay section was spectacular. The beach has gotten some hate online but I have no idea why. Yes it sucks that you have to pay 100rmb to have a clean beach because local yokels don't have enough decency to clean up after themselves, but this is the PRC. For 100rmb you get a huge, beautiful beach. At night it was almost deserted and Yen and I had a km of it all to ourselves, watching lighting in the distance in the dark. One of my better experiences in Asia. We liked it enough to come back the next day after we checked out of the hotel. 





However, by 1:30 we were hot and ready to head back, so we went to a Starbucks near the train station for a small lunch, then headed back to Nanning.

Beihai is a cool city and definitely worth a weekend trip, especially if you are in southern China. If coming from farther away it may not be worth making the trip, especially as China does as much as it can to make tourism difficult. But as a city to visit, it was well worth it. Made for a lovely birthday weekend for Yen.





No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.