Voices

'Idyllic Beidaihe' fails to live up to expectations

By Edward Mills (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-15 10:27

Beidaihe receives a somewhat lacklustre review in one of the more trusted travel guides, which describes its seafront as being comprised of "garish modern" properties with beaches "packed with hawkers and holiday-makers" in summer.

Despite this uninspiring write-up, when kindly invited by an association to spend a weekend away from boiling Beijing at a location best known for being Beijingers' summer retreat, I jumped at the chance.

Admittedly the weather wasn't the best, which is likely to lower one's opinion - not that it put off the huge number of tight-swimming-shorts-wearing holidaying Chinese men. Even with some rain and otherwise muggy conditions, the public area of the beach was full of people from the crack of dawn to the latest of night.

The hotel had its own private beach, which was ideal to brave the elements for football and swimming, but struck me as wholly unfair. The majority of holidaymakers were crammed in together on part of the beach with barely any room to place a towel or enter the sea, due to the sheer numbers, whilst the rest of the beach was cordoned off for the hotel and other purposes - largely completely empty.

If the beach were open access to all, the people would have been more spread out and it is likely those on the public part of the beach could have had a better time. It doesn't make a lot of sense to allocate part of a beach to a handful of people at the expense of others' enjoyment.

The cleanliness of the beach and surrounding area could do with some improvement, as discarded food packaging was often found floating in the water, with cigarette butts and other assorted rubbish dotted about everywhere.

Part of this problem must be down to education though and more punitive measures must be introduced across major developed regions of China - there are those who seem to feel it is their duty to compulsively litter in every town and city.

Within a few short minutes' walk from the beach was a multitude of restaurants: none looked particularly appetizing. Having sampled several, the seafood on offer was perfectly acceptable, if not extraordinary, but the experience was somewhat tarnished by the fake alcohol served.

Taking advantage of tourists is to be expected in a holiday area, but such things should only impact on your wallet and not potentially on one's health. Whilst it's not uncommon to come across fake alcohol in Beijing, the entire practice is something that desperately needs addressing by the authorities.

How about the rest of the city? Having only a short weekend to assess the place, unfortunately it was impossible to spend time too far from the locale of the hotel. Perhaps the restaurant quality is better elsewhere - I've heard there are fantastic views from higher ground.

Conclusions to draw from the experience would be that Beidaihe is somewhat over-hyped and that the travel guide wasn't at all off the mark, although I will have to go back and explore a little more (in the sunshine) to make certain nothing important was overlooked!

It would be recommended to visit when you're confident of the weather being good and try and book a hotel with a private section of the beach. That, or make sure to travel with good company like I did, as companions in good spirits can improve any average experience.