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Published: March 9th 2023
Can’t remember what I did for breakfast, I think I went to the restaurant by the old town gate again for noodles, there were no pictures so I presume I just had fried noodles. I did get some nice photos of the main street of the ancient city in the sunshine before the tourist hordes descended. Back to my guest house for another cup of coffee and then I was on my way to Xichong Beach, which is meant to be the prettiest one in the Dapeng Peninsula. The journey involved two bus rides. The first was fairly quick and retraced part of the journey I had made from Dapeng centre to the ancient city. Nothing exciting and the streets were still deserted. From that bus stop it was a short walk to the next one to get the bus to the beach. I had just missed the bus and had to wait about 30 minutes or so for the next one, so I tried to grab some shade in the bus stop, but it wasn’t really working. I really wish there had been a coffee shop or convenience store nearby to hide from the sun in.
The second bus
ride was a lot more interesting. The bus drove through the town to the coast and I got some nice views of a small beach we passed and other views of the ocean. The road took us inland too and I think we went through a tunnel (that might be wrong), but the interior of the peninsula had some lush vegetation on display. I knew I was in the right place as lots of other people got off the bus at the fairly nondescript stop closest to Xichong Beach. It was still quite a walk to the beach and involved having to show my healthcode to walk through the beach town. The town reminded me of going on holiday when I was younger to Mediterranean beach resort towns, it just had that kind of vibe about it. After leaving the town, it was a short walk down a narrow road to the entrance to beach.
Xichong Beach is a private beach, I think owned by the OCT company, and you had to scan and pay on WeChat and then scan the QR code it provided to let you into the beach. The staff were really helpful and helped me
to buy the ticket. I think it was about 40 or 50 yuan. A bit overpriced in my opinion, but I feel that way about a lot of the tourist attractions in China. A short walk down a tree lined road and I came to the beach. Since this was by the main entrance it was busy and there was a few shops and restaurant, hire places and cabanas.
The beach stretched in both directions and I decided to head east first. The views were glorious and I enjoyed walking along the beach. There were quite a few people there, but it didn’t feel too crowded. I liked watching the waves come in and out, and the hill mountain in the distance, there seemed to be some kind of observation station or other kind of building on it. You can walk the trail along the mountain to the next beach Dongchong, but of course, the trail is closed, no doubt for Covid reasons like everything else. I did come across an abandoned welly, I wonder if it had been lost at sea or someone had left it on the beach. There was a surf school on the beach and
I watched people having lessons and/or going out for a surf. There was also a helicopter flying pretty low overhead. An interesting thing on the beach was this stone circle thing, it was built into the sand and wasn’t very high and the tide was filling it up. I didn’t know if it was old or modern, but in my mind it dated back centuries and was used for some kind of ancient worship practices. I’m sure the reality is a lot more dull. I loved that the area around the beach wasn’t built up and all I could see was the mountains in the distance. As I approached the end of the beach, some overzealous security guards stopped me from going any further, I was rather annoyed as I had wanted to walk all the way to the end where the walkway started, but was fenced off from the public, so that I had walked from one end to the other fully.
I turned around and made my way west, retracing my steps and enjoying the view of the other end of the beach. The mountains/hills on this side looked bigger and stretched further than those in the
other direction. I also liked looking at the little islands that weren’t too far from the shore. After passing the busy stretch near the entrance the beach quietened down again. The trees that lined the back of the beach also made it feel further away from the hustle and bustle of the town close by. Being a paid beach, it was much cleaner than the beach near where I was staying, there were only a couple of bits of litter and a lone pair of glasses.
I had hoped to make my way along the beach without having to take my shoes off. However, there was some kind of stream that was flowing out into the sea. I hoped that it wasn’t any kind of sewage as it looked crystal clear, but you never know. Luckily, it wasn’t too deep. There was a couple walking along under a black umbrella, they looked cute and I spent a while trying to get some photos of them as it reminded me of the Jack Vettriano, while not identical in scene, they had that aura about them. The sun was pretty unrelenting and even after reapplying some sunscreen, I could feel my
legs getting frazzled. There must be another entrance at this part of the beach as it was very similar in set up to where I had entered. I walked pretty much to the end of the beach, but stopped before I reached the security guards as I didn’t want to be shouted at like at the other end. I sat and took in the view and watch some people swimming and bobbing about in tubes. When I grew tired of that I headed up to the shop to buy a drink. It’s usually pretty hard to get an icy cold drink in China as stores don’t set their fridges low enough, but these beach ones did. I enjoyed an icy cool bottle of lemonade as I made my way back along the beach. I was still hot and thirsty when I made it back to the entrance and bought another couple of bottles of water from the shop there. I downed the first one and then pretty much sweated it out of my head immediately. Utterly gross! I took longer to drink the second one as I made my way back to the bus stop. I had to wait a
while for the bus, but it wasn’t too bad and I enjoyed the views on the first bus ride back. My map app had given me a slightly different route back and I took a different bus back to the ancient city.
I was feeling hungry when I got off the bus and had seen on my map app that there was a bakery near the entrance I used, so I headed there. The bakery was small and a bit weird as I am used to self service, but there were no trays and tongs, and the lass from behind the counter came out to serve me. I got some kind of sausage bread and a slice of cake. I also stopped off at the convenience store to pick up some more water. When I got back to my room, I ate my stuff from the bakery. It was yummy and made a nice change from noodles. I also surveyed my sunburn. My legs were pretty red and I slathered a tonne of lotion on them. Despite wearing a hat, my big conk had also caught the sun. I sent the rest of the afternoon laying on my bed,
rehydrating myself to help the sunburn.
After going for my daily Covid test and a bit of a walk around, it was time to find some dinner. I decided to go back to the noodle and juice place on the street I was staying on, as I wanted to try their reganmian. While it had been quiet the night before, it was a lot busier tonight. I ordered the reganmian and a watermelon juice. The reganmian were nice but not a patch on the other place. I enjoyed the watermelon juice as it was rather refreshing. Then it was home to relax.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Sunburn
Sunburn is such an annoying part of extensive explorations in sunny weather. When I find myself complaining that it's too hot or too sunny, I ask the question - do you prefer grey skies and no sunburn, or blue skies and possible sunburn? Blue skies win every time! :D Your blue-sky photos are lovely!