Beidaihe: The Communist Party’s Beach Town

This weekend, we made the trip to Beidaihe, a coastal beach-resort town in Hebei about 200 miles east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea. The city is renowned as being home to regular high-level secret conferences held by the top leaders in the Communist Party due to its close proximity to Beijing as well as the exclusiveness afforded by its expensive seaside villas and resorts.

Though current Chinese President Hu Jintao put an end to the secret seaside meetings a few years ago, the town is still crawling with security. There are police on every corner, and it is said that many government and party officials still maintain vacation homes here. There are also strange, elusive buildings on the beaches with military guards preventing any but those with special status from entering, and private beaches completely empty save a lone soldier keeping guard (guard of what, I can’t quite be sure).

All the secret Communist Party associations aside, the town provides a great weekend getaway spot from Beijing. It’s only three hours by bus (or about the same by train, if tickets aren’t sold out), and if you don’t mind dealing with the crowds, it’s pretty relaxing. The city’s architecture astounded me: It’s the first place I’ve ever been in China that didn’t look like China. The buildings looked like, well, normal. I assume this is due to the Russian influence, which cannot be missed. All the storefronts, signs and menus are in Chinese and Russian, and we were the only non-Han-looking foreigners who didn’t seem to be Russian. All the Chinese merchants, and even a few Russians themselves, mistook Brian and me for Russians. The only response I could muster to what sounded like vlaidivokdostyk oyvich doyesvky was a blank stare. (Brian came to my rescue, responding, in English, “Sorry. We’re Americans.”)

Peter Hessler, in his 2002 New Yorker piece, describes it better than I can:

Beidaihe appeared deceptively peaceful. The sea was the color of old gray silk, and the streets were lined with willows and plum trees; cicadas the size of wrens hummed rhythmically. Couples rented bicycles built for two. Westward along the coast, the beaches were carefully divided: one strip was reserved for vacationing soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army; another section belonged to the State Council; another was the private beach of the Diplomatic Services Bureau. After that came a wedge of sand that was open to anybody who paid a dollar’s admission, and then there was the bustle of the free public beach: photograph venders, drink sellers, and people who rented out shaded bamboo beach chairs. Women in skirted swimsuits waded tentatively into the water; men tucked cigarette packages into the waistbands of their Speedo-style trunks. The public beach stretched for half a mile and then ended abruptly at a roped-off border patrolled by uniformed guards.

Anyway, some photos follow from our weekend of sunbathing on the beach and indulging in seafood. If you want to see the full album of photos, check them out on my Flickr page.

A cute beachfront hotel. This does not look like it belongs in China!

A stretch of Beidiahe's sunny beaches

Enjoying our weekend at the beach!

Our fresh seafood dinner (the fish was alive until we picked him out before eating): some sort of white fish (Chinese word: yellow fish), spicy clams, shredded potatoes, lamb skewers and beer.

One of the beaches suspiciously completely deserted except for the lone soldier out there.