A Family Trip to Beidaihe-1

It is really a pity I just cannot spare too much time writing something on my vacation trip to Beidaihe these days. The entry suspended several time and I’ve decided to finish it today. I will share some of the pictures I took with you later.



The three-day stay in the city is an exciting experience for me. More importantly, it was one of the few trips the whole family have had together. I failed to join some of the trips during the past several years one reason or another. I felt exhilarated just thinking of this.



We took an express train to Beidaihe in the early morning. Since it was still one day ahead of the weekend (Thursday), there weren’t too many people on the train. Around noon, we arrived at the Beidaihe Railway Station. After going out of the station, we headed for our hotel by taxi. The air was neat and cool, and we had left the extreme heat in Beijing behind.



The hotel we stayed was a three star and we had a brief lunch at the canteen. After lunch, Frank, my son, got so excited that he wanted to see the beach immediately although this was not the first time he saw the seaside. So we put on our swimsuits and walked to the beach. The nearest beach from our hotel was no more than 10 minutes’ walking distance, and we didn’t forget to rent two life bouys---none of us could swim well. The sun was shining above, and the trees spreading their shades along the streets, beautiful flowers were clustering and blooming. We could see people in swimsuits, either walking in groups or in twos or threes. Sandals on their feet and towels and life bouys across their shoulder, they were strolling to the same place.



Here we were at the beach! There were stunning number of people there and we could barely manage a place. There must be several thousand people there, white or colorful sunshades were strewn along the sandy beach like bright dots. Some people were lying prostrate on the sand to get the sunburn, and some were playing with the sand. There were more people in the water. Some were swimming with their bouys, while others were wading in the shallow water. Something funny was a man swimming in the deep water and dragging a small plastic boat behind. A small dog was crouching in it, trembling with fright. Curious people would swim near the boat and said hello to the poor little dog.



Wearing the life buoys, Frank and I walked into the water. The sunshine had made the water warm and it was very comfortable wading in it. The wind was blowing, the waves rushing to the shore. Sometimes you could barely keep your legs when they came, but when we swam further, we found them losing their mighty power. We were like some small boats poppling in the roaring sea.



Something funny was that my wife lost her glasses when she was trying to swim in the sea. She was so frightened at the waves that she could not keep her balance in the water. And she couldn’t recollect when the glasses were gone. She spent the left time there in mistiness because she was near-sighted like me.



We stayed at the beach for about two hours and left there reluctantly later. What a day! And something else was waiting for us. I will tell you about it next time.