Beihai

The weekend after my birthday promised to be a nice opportunity to visit the coastal city Beihai, famous for its long sandy beach, the best on the Chinese mainland. I had planned to go there much earlier, but somehow never found the right moment to go. Now, with the summer in full swing and temperatures reaching 30 degrees, it was time to go. Ahead of the big crowds which are to be expected next week, when the week-long May 1st holiday kicks off. In China, there are only a few national holidays per year, and on these days almost everybody leaves their hometown to visit family or make a touristic trip, so large crowds, raised prices, and travel chaos is prevalent all over China.
I had bought train tickets to Beihai a few days before (trains often sell out), leaving Nanning at 9:05 in the morning, and arriving in Beihai 3 hours later. Train is my preferred method of transport in China, as it provides a lot of local culture, nice views, and is quite comfortable. Besides that, it is cheaper than bus, and the train stations are usually much more centrally located than long-distance bus stations, saving extra travel time and hassle.

Arriving in Beihai at noon, we first went for lunch. Of course, in a seaside town like Beihai, you can not miss the delicious fresh seafood on offer. We splurged on giant grilled monster shrimp (150 gram each), steamed clams, and side dishes of sauteed aubergine and fried rice with scrambled egg.
After lunch we explored the old town of Beihai, which is remarkable for its large amount of old Chinese shop houses, and some larger edifices in continental style. Beihai is also a very green city, with big trees lining broad avenues, offering a very pleasant atmosphere.
We found a comfortable and very affordable hotel before heading for the beach for an afternoon swim. Xiao An had never seen the sea (surprisingly, as it is
so close), so was very excited. For me too it had been quite a while since I was at the seaside, so I was equally excited to get my feet wet, and more.

Beihai's famous Silver beach is on the south side of the peninsula, facing the South China Sea. It has fine sand, almost white, and is now a fully developed seaside resort, with some big hotels and a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops. Since it was not a holiday weekend (in China, Easter is not celebrated), it was not crowded at all. At one side of the beach you can rent parasols, but it was not needed, because the sky was quite overcast. Still, it was quite warm, but without the risk of sunburn. The second day we returned to the beach, had lunch at a outdoor restaurant in a park, and headed back to Nanning in the afternoon. Unfortunately there is no train service in the afternoon, so we had to take a bus instead. Buses to Nanning leave Beihai every half hour, so it was no problem to get home, but the bus station is really far out of town, and arriving at the Lang Dong bus station in Nanning 3 hours later meant another hour on a Nanning city bus before reaching home. Nonetheless, all in all a very nice trip!