Beihai
Nearly coming to an end, or at least the money is !!. Last night took the overnight boat from Haikou to here Beihai. The port a bit chaotic, no English spoken and all a bit confusing but eventually got on. Certainly no luxury cruise, all rough and ready and rougher than expected so plenty of people emptied their stomachs. But arrived 6am without problems.
In LP it states Beihai has 2000 years of history. The boat over probably the oldest thing I’ve seen followed by the rust bucket of a bus to the beach, so old you could see the road thru the metal flooring and the seats were metal !. The downtown area modern and nice enough. There is the remains of an old quarter but in need of being rebuilt which I am sure it will be.
Went to its famous Silver Beach this afternoon. Comes under a 4 star attraction and was one of China’s 35 top original tourist spots. So must be good !!. Given the star ratings I’ve had with my hotels the Chinese seem to have problems with stars, probably too many karaoke nights. In fairness the beach was nice but had a definite low season feel about it and felt a bit run down, to spend a week there I think I would be slashing my wrist type of place. Probably in high season a great place, buzzing and fun , just not today. I would have gone swimming but the sign warning of the risk of extortion whilst swimming scared me off !!, my money’s on the jelly fish.
Overall Beihai seems a wealthy city, anyone old enough to walk, on a motorbike, maybe all that extortion, and crossing the road Vietnam style, total madhouse and can do nothing but look away and keep walking and hope they miss you.
Tomorrow take the bus to the Vietnamese border.
Tags: China, Travel
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