Not Approved by LP

Finally at an end, or at least think this is. I assume this place is near the Vietnamese border which I hope to cross tomorrow. However the LP info ends at Beihai and if there are details about crossing the border they are not in my remnants and so basically clueless. And in an English free zone.

The bus down here a straight forward 4 hour trip but nothing of interest. Dongxing itself seems quite a fair size city and modern and must be near Vietnam as the writing in Viet and Chinese. If nothing else lots of hotels and the cheapest oranges in China so can’t be that bad.

So hopefully tomorrow will be in Vietnam, just hope its ok for foreigners to enter here and don’t get too much of a run around, I think Vietnam has improved to the old days but this certainly isn’t Hanoi. And don’t have a guidebook or map so wil be hit and miss.

Sad to be leaving China, been top notch with lots of great places and people and can’t wait to come back.

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.

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