30rd of July -1st of August 2010
My first escape from Beijing during my first internship abroad. It was also the first trip with my ex Chinese girlfriend.
To make it simple I was dreaming for a beach time especially during the summer and it seems that Beidahe resort was the closest one to Beijing.
2 options were available:
-a train which takes 2h
- or a bus which takes 4h.
We decided to go by train ... but as soon as we arrived on the train station there were not any tickets available for the next 3 trains.. it seemed that everyone was going there ...So we went by bus ...
This is the moment you appreciate being with a local: solutions are coming fast and wasting time minimized.
In the late afternoon we reached the resort. We haven't booked any hotel so we went to find one. At the moment to check in "Surpriseeee- I have forgotten my passport in Beijing"... not smart at all as in China nothing can replace a passport... In the next 15 min i don't know what happened I was only hearing a conversation in Chinese and me trying to smile to the receptionist (pretending I am not stressed)... in the end the receptionist took my ID made a copy and let us in... I guess my ex girlfriend negotiating skills were really good...
She told me that the reason why they let us check in was that she lied to them pretending that tomorrow à friend will bring my passport... smart ! The problem: no friend would come and we had another night there ...
Well after all this didn't stop us:
In the night we went for a dinner and a walk around the city... my biggest surprise: everything was written in Chinese and Russian... and indeed the resort was full of Russians and even the waiter was talking to me in Russian. The walk was quite fast, as except a fountain in the downtown and the sea coast there was nothing exceptional to see. However, we took the opportunity to check for hotels for the next night. Well we stopped the hotels where the Chinese go (no foreigner licence). In one of them, after my ex explaining the situation, the receptionist looked at me and said: "oh, but he looks Chinese ...no problem" - euuu okey! Being compared to a Russian and to a Chinese in the same night: check!
The day after we checked out and checked in in the new hotel. We then went for a lunch and spend the afternoon on the beach. Well it is not common for Chinese to go on the beach as they pay attention the skin color a lot... as my ex did. So she basically spent the afternoon under the umbrella while I was trying to get a bit of sun on my skin...
the sea was not so beautiful... very salty and quite dirty, but the sand was pretty fine.
In the end of the afternoon I also tried the public bathrooms to get the sand out of me... well that was epic:
- the sink was working by pushing on a wood on the floor... funny :)
- all the Chinese men are naked there (of course it is a bath) but the main problem was that they were looking at my sexe trying to compared with theirs... quite uncomfortable situation but also funny because the "myth is confirmed..."
After a nice dinner and one more illegal night in the hotel we left in the morning for Beijing.
This was my first trip out of Beijing during my brief stay in 2010. I managed to see to the sea and spend two days away from the crowd. And i will always remember the funny situation I had with the forgotten passport in China.
To make it simple I was dreaming for a beach time especially during the summer and it seems that Beidahe resort was the closest one to Beijing.
2 options were available:
-a train which takes 2h
- or a bus which takes 4h.
We decided to go by train ... but as soon as we arrived on the train station there were not any tickets available for the next 3 trains.. it seemed that everyone was going there ...So we went by bus ...
This is the moment you appreciate being with a local: solutions are coming fast and wasting time minimized.
In the late afternoon we reached the resort. We haven't booked any hotel so we went to find one. At the moment to check in "Surpriseeee- I have forgotten my passport in Beijing"... not smart at all as in China nothing can replace a passport... In the next 15 min i don't know what happened I was only hearing a conversation in Chinese and me trying to smile to the receptionist (pretending I am not stressed)... in the end the receptionist took my ID made a copy and let us in... I guess my ex girlfriend negotiating skills were really good...
She told me that the reason why they let us check in was that she lied to them pretending that tomorrow à friend will bring my passport... smart ! The problem: no friend would come and we had another night there ...
Well after all this didn't stop us:
In the night we went for a dinner and a walk around the city... my biggest surprise: everything was written in Chinese and Russian... and indeed the resort was full of Russians and even the waiter was talking to me in Russian. The walk was quite fast, as except a fountain in the downtown and the sea coast there was nothing exceptional to see. However, we took the opportunity to check for hotels for the next night. Well we stopped the hotels where the Chinese go (no foreigner licence). In one of them, after my ex explaining the situation, the receptionist looked at me and said: "oh, but he looks Chinese ...no problem" - euuu okey! Being compared to a Russian and to a Chinese in the same night: check!
The day after we checked out and checked in in the new hotel. We then went for a lunch and spend the afternoon on the beach. Well it is not common for Chinese to go on the beach as they pay attention the skin color a lot... as my ex did. So she basically spent the afternoon under the umbrella while I was trying to get a bit of sun on my skin...
the sea was not so beautiful... very salty and quite dirty, but the sand was pretty fine.
In the end of the afternoon I also tried the public bathrooms to get the sand out of me... well that was epic:
- the sink was working by pushing on a wood on the floor... funny :)
- all the Chinese men are naked there (of course it is a bath) but the main problem was that they were looking at my sexe trying to compared with theirs... quite uncomfortable situation but also funny because the "myth is confirmed..."
After a nice dinner and one more illegal night in the hotel we left in the morning for Beijing.
This was my first trip out of Beijing during my brief stay in 2010. I managed to see to the sea and spend two days away from the crowd. And i will always remember the funny situation I had with the forgotten passport in China.
