Weihai International Bathing Beach, Shandong, China

4David C 5:00 PM Sep 2, 2014

Weihai, Shandong, China
We finally reached Weihai on a tour, from Jinan and part of the arrangement was to take us to the Korean shopping Centre, near the ferry port. Where you can get a ferry to Korea and even Japan. We’d been here before and I’d bought a great screwdriver, with about 8 attachments for different kinds of screws, plus a light, which I could never get to work and my wife had bought some scarves. We were allocated 1 hour here, but we were finished in about 10 minutes. It was quite disappointing really, as there were about 100 shop units, but only selling about 4 different kind of products, clothes, toys, nick nacks and food., on 4 floors. We were waylaid by two charming Chinese sales ladies at a nick nack shop and spent all our time in there. The agents had warned us the prices might be shown at say 150 yuan, but you should only offer 15, so we tried our best. Having already bought a screwdriver set, I was intrigued by a hammer set, in the manner of a Swiss Army knife. It had a reasonably sized hammer in stainless steel, with the handle also making up a pair of plyers, which would also act as a nut cracker and at the other end, was a penknife attachment, bottle opener, small screwdriver, but alas, nothing for getting stones out of horses hooves. However, I thought of all the items displayed in 100 shop units, this was the only one I was interested in. The price was 150 yuan, but we managed to get it down to 70 yuan, although I probably should have paid about 25, but I was quite happy with my new toy. They tried to tempt me with the screwdriver set again, but I was able to explain I already had one and no, I didn’t want an electric razor. My wife managed to get talked into buying an electric eyebrow trimmer, originally for 40 yuan, bartered down to 20 yuan and they wanted 25 yuan for an electric light/torch, used to check for ear wax, but she got 2 for 15 yuan. These were a treasure for my wife as she’s always checking my ears and as a joke I shone the light in one ear and got her to look in the other one, to see if she could see it, which the sales ladies enjoyed. They would hardly let us go, after these three purchases, but I showed them I only had 1 yuan left and started to cry, so they let us go. It was pretty cold by the time we went to our next stop at 5.30, which was nearby at the large ornamental gate overlooking the bay-called the ‘Enjoyment Gate’ there is a cafe at the top and its about 150 feet high, sort of upturned rectangle shape. We took a few photos here and chatted to some of our fellow travellers, one was the sales manager of the sales company who said he understood a bit of English, but was too embarrassed to try saying anything and there was an old gentleman, of 72 who was quite friendly, who said he’d learnt English at school when he was about 3, but had forgotten all of it, so had become a boxer instead. He was born in Qingdao, but says he prefers Weihai and wants to move there from Jinan. We had left Jinan in fairly muddy and wet conditions, where all the cars and buses were covered in mud splashes to their waistline, whereas all the roads and cars in Weihai looked remarkably clean. There is obviously less pollution here, blue skies etc and everything looks pretty clean. The minimum taxi fare is 6 yuan, compared to 7.5 in Jinan, 9.0 in Nanjing and 10 in Beijing. As might have been expected, the hotel Jinlang was pretty basic and the room was cold, even with some hot air blowing. When we went to bed we shared a single bed to keep warm, adding a spare duvet and blanket to the bed. We went down for our dinner at six, where another basic meal had been set aside for our party. Some of us complained about their assumption we were all vegetarians, as the only meat involved, was a few small fish mixed with shredded mouli and some scrambled egg with tomato. When we finished I joked lets go outside and get something to eat, but I was full enough with rice and steamed bread. After eating our meal still wearing our overcoats, we repaired to bed at about 7.00 and watched a bit of TV before deciding to go to bed about 8.00 pm again, one to keep warm and also we had an early breakfast due at 6.30 am. However, we decided to enjoy the rest of the trip and were taken to a couple of photo opportunity areas, one of them being a Daoist Temple, where my wife had been conned, or persuaded to part with 666 yuan, about a year ago. We had visited this place with Mr Meng and his wife, along with my wife’s brother Yan and while Yan was advising me not to buy anything at the temple, or listen to any of their sales pitches, my wife had been drawn aside by a monk, as a special opportunity to pray for good luck, with one of the high priests. After the prayers, she was taken aside, or chosen by the high priest for a special consultation. While he was talking to her and saying she was in for several years of good luck for herself and family, he suddenly interjected and said ‘999’, She said,’ what do you mean? ‘Yuan’ , he said. ‘I haven’t got that much on me’ she protested. ‘666 will be OK’, he responded, holding out his hand and she, mesmerised, handed it over-to ensure good luck for the whole family. So this time, we avoided the temple and just took some pictures of the cliffs. Weihai, is quite a large city/port with a population of about 3 million, with airport, rail and bus connections, plus ferries to South Korea and Japan. When we were there in December 2009, the sea froze over for about 50 miles and about 300 fishing boats were stuck in the ice. At 10.00 next day, we took the 21 bus, to go to the large museum, one side of it is on the beach road and the other on the other road which runs parallel. It’s a massive place, next to an exhibition centre, sort of shaped like a seabird with it’s wings spread, but with a winding bridge, which crosses the main road and makes it look a bit like an octopus, with a large Dalek glass construction in the middle. Seen one before like it before, not sure where, either Hanzhou, Guangzhou or Jinan. However, as might have been expected, there were no exhibits in the museum! Apart from an art gallery of Chinese painting on the 4th floor.. With a museum about the size of The British Museum, it seemed rather empty, but marble floors everywhere, non working escalators, but excellent toilets and no tea room. We had a look at some of the pictures and then had to get a taxi into town for a Korean lunch, as we had no small change for the bus, which doesn’t give change for a 50 yuan note. The best supermarkets for buying food in Weihai are Da Yun Fah, which is good for local food and ready cooked meals, but for Western foods, you can go to Jusco’s which has a good selection of Western foods and even French bread, plus American butter, which items are quite hard to find in China. Jusco’s also has a cinema complex, showing Western films. After settling in, we went out and took a taxi to Golden Bay Beach, via the mountain route, which was a bit more expensive at 32 yuan, but worth it for great views. When we alighted at the beach, there were some barriers to the beach, with warnings about some oily deposits found on the beach, which had fortunately solidified in solid blocks along the strand, reasonably easy to avoid, but which spoilt an otherwise immaculate sandy beach, with clear blue water. We’d stayed at this hotel once before and had been impressed by the excellent rooms, great views, similar to the French Riviera and good choices of food. We went down at 6.30 for dinner in the hotel WeihaiWei, in their Western restaurant-they also have a Korean as well as Chinese and I ordered tomato soup and Spaghetti Bolognaise, which was OK, although with no parmesan cheese, which is understandable, as the Chinese don’t tend to eat much cheese, which is rather strange as they eat about everything else under the sun, such as ducks lips, chicken feet, cows intestines, silk worm lavae etc. The cheese you buy in the supermarket is either foreign imported, like Brie, which is quite expensive at about 150 yuan for 200 grammes and the local cheese is mainly processed and sold in very thin slices, individually wrapped in plastic envelopes We left the station at Weihai, just after 7.35 avoiding the touts looking to give us taxi rides to wherever, my wife asked one guy the price to Hotel Qiming, just out of curiosity and he quoted 90 yuan, when we knew the usual taxi fare was about 25, so we told him to get lost. Wouldn’t trust these guys anyway, as there’s plenty of taxis waiting in line outside the station, so there’s no reason to go with one of these probably unlicensed guys-I don’t know why they even bother. One morning, we took a 10 bus, away from town and passed through some nice residential areas and seaside parks, to a Wholesale market area, with a Qilu shopping market on the other side, but didn’t go there. In the market, we bought a penknife for 12 yuan, a teapot for 15 yuan and two cups with lids, for 10 yuan each. Then we caught a taxi to Jusco, as detailed above. This place is Japanese owned, which may explain why it’s mostly empty, due to a dispute with Japan over some islands, between the two countries. They’ve tried to cover this up, by displaying a load of Chinese flags outside, but no-one seems to be fooled. We decided to go to Golden Bay area beach after lunch and caught a 21 bus into town and changed for a number 7 to take us to the beach. The whole journey took an hour or so and very hot in the bus, without air conditioning, but we were lucky to get seats early. On the beach, which was busy all the way along, we rented an umbrella and 2 deck chairs for 80 yuan for 1 hour. We had brought our swimming stuff, but with nowhere to change conveniently, we just went for a paddle. We left around 11.15 and ran for the bus back into town and got off near WEGO to look for a food court to have lunch. We found a very busy place and I had fried beef in black bean sauce and spaghetti and Ling had pork, with some prawns and tofou, washed down with a beer. I went to get a couple of other savouries, rice, veg and egg fried into a sort of pattie and total cost 50 yuan. Because the roads here are so long and straight, distances are deceptive. You can see where you want to go in the distance, but it seems a long time to get there. Rather like in Paris, where you can see La Place de la Concorde at the end of the Champs Elysee, but it’s a distance of 5 miles. After breakfast, we discussed taking a bus in any direction in order to see a bit more of the city, Apparently, when Ling’s mum was here about 20 years ago, it was just a small fishing village, with not many houses. Now it’s a city with 2 and a half million people and masses of high rise blocks of flats, complete with fountains, pools and mature trees etc. However, like Yintan, there hasn’t been time to establish a proper city, with Temples, theatres, museums etc, although there’s a cinema in Juscos and schools, Unis and hospitals. We caught a 10 bus in the opposite direction to the town centre and on the way to the market area, we saw a nice park area near the coast and caught the bus back. We got off at the park and some couples were using the scenery as a backdrop for wedding photos. It was nicely landscaped, with statues, stone bridges and boating lake. We went over a couple of stone bridges to another walled off part of a sort of small lagoon, with artificial rocks, made of cement or fibre glass, but they were hollow, We walked a bit further and came to a large sandy beach, with quite a few bathers. The water wasn’t very deep for swimming and you could see a lot of people, far out, with water only up to their waists. There were lots of sand bars just below the water line. We took a few photos and then bought a couple of ice lollies at 2 yuan each and sat beneath some trees. Another nice day, not too hot and after breakfast at about 10 we took the 21 to the final stop, to visit a park and pagoda at the highest part at the city. It was very tidy, with nice gardens and we read the signs saying it was all renovated between 2009 – 2012. The original building goes back to the Ming dynasty. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside the pagoda as it was closed to the public until 2.00. We walked back to a café we’d seen before and I had a latte for 18 yuan and my wife had a tea with date juice. They let me play one of the guitars on display. A very nice place, with excellent coffee. And they were at least maiking an attempt at catering for tourists. The Chinese don’t seem to be so interested in tea rooms as the UK, or coffee bars, as in USA and Uk, although they have a few Starbucks, in addition to pizza Hut, MacDonalds and KFC. However, this park, although worth a visit, was not at all busy and not many people about. It’s quite an impressive place, but doesn’t seem to attract many sightseers. Then we walked down a load of steps, leading to statue of an admiral from WW1 when they’d been fighting Japan. One time during Winter, we stayed at The Baohai hotel, which was very warm and comfortable and excellent shower and beds. Slept well and got up about 6.30 and went for an early breakfast, which was a very good choice of food from the buffet. I had fried egg on toast, although the girl in the kitchen seemed new as she kept breaking the eggs and dropping stuff. When I went to replenish my tea cup, one of the waiters was already trying to clear away my plate, before I’d hardly started! It started snowing outside, but after we checked out, paying the bill of 520 yuan, including lunch, a bellboy got a taxi for us and took our bags outside.

4David B 5:00 PM Oct 2, 2014

Lovely Beach
I live in Weihai and therefore have visited the beach on multiple occasions. We are very privileged to live so close and to be able to make the most of our natural surroundings. There is plenty to do and the great variety of restaurants makes it easy to spend a whole day here. The sea is great to swim in. The locals tend to come later in the day so if you want a quieter visit aim to come in the morning. It is possible to sleep here overnight in a tent, many do.