Three years into the epidemic, my "Travel & Residence" column has not been open for a long time. The last travelogue was in Dali in May 2020, when I was still Gou Can’s fiancée. Unexpectedly, when I updated again, I had completed a series of major life events such as getting married, getting pregnant, and giving birth to a baby.
In the past few years during the epidemic, it is not that I have never traveled. For example, I went to Guangzhou to see my waistline, to Sanya to take wedding photos, to Xi'an to attend a wedding, and to Fangchenggang to see the sea... But I rushed back after each trip. At work, I kept putting off my travel notes, and then I lost interest in writing them.
Beihai, a small seaside town located in southern Guangxi, does not have Guangxi’s characteristic karst landscape, but instead has overlapping waves and gentle sea breeze. December in the North Sea is a cold winter, and it is also the off-season for tourism. Although you cannot go to the sea to play in the water, walking on the beach at low tide, bathing in the sunshine of 21° north latitude and blowing the slightly cool sea breeze, is also a different kind of experience. romantic.
Feel the cultural customs of Southeast Asia without leaving the country
Because we arrived in Beihai in the evening, we went to Qiaogang Fengqing Street to go shopping and eat in the evening. Qiaogang is a market town dominated by Vietnamese expatriates and is also the smallest organized town in my country. Most of the people here have made a living by fishing for generations. At the same time, the market town is also a fishing port, so it is called "Qiaogang".
Traveling out of season, although you won’t feel the liveliness of Fengqing Street, the biggest advantage is that it’s not crowded at all, you don’t have to queue anywhere, and the pace and mood of travel have also slowed down.
The greatest joy when visiting Qiaogang Fengqing Street is eating while walking. The most famous delicacies here are shrimp cakes, seafood and sugar water. This is my first time to eat Beihai's specialty shrimp cakes. I really recommend them. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Once you take a bite, you will find the crispy and slightly salty shrimp cake with the taste of the sea. Among the many shops that sell shrimp cakes, Xinji Shrimp Cake is the most recommended. The shrimp portion is super generous. (P.S. Shrimp cakes are fried foods, relatively greasy, and I like heavy flavors, but they may not be suitable for most people.)
By the way, in addition to the shrimp cakes, I also highly recommend the cuttlefish balls, which are fresh and delicious. As for the spring rolls, I wouldn’t recommend them. They weren’t very impressive. They looked like a pile of leftovers wrapped in a pancake wrapper.
As for seafood, it’s also super cheap due to the low tourist season. In order to attract customers, the restaurants on Fengqing Street offer a seafood set meal with 6 dishes for 29.9 yuan. Although the portion is not very large, it is enough to fill you up and leave some room for other snacks.
In addition to these 6 dishes, 2 cups of pickled plum juice were also given. Such a table only cost 29.9 yuan. Gou Can and I were moved to tears. Suddenly I feel like traveling out of season is really a great way to save money.
After finishing the seafood, we checked in at the candy shop and had a cup of mango fried ice. One thing to say is that the fried ice here is not delicious, and it is not as good as the fried ice I had before in Xiaogang, Guangzhou. But if it’s summer, it’s still okay to have a drink to relieve the heat.
After walking around and eating a lot in Qiaogang, I was so stuffed. So, we followed the map to the harbor below and went for a walk on the beach. After not walking far, we saw the inland sea. A large number of ships were moored on the sea, arranged neatly and colorfully, like a beautiful oil painting.
As the saying goes, "Hu people are more convenient than horses, and Vietnamese people are lighter than boats." The Vietnamese expatriates who are close to the river and the sea give the city of Beihai a Vietnamese style.
Bathe in the sunshine at 21° North Latitude and stroll along the best beach in the world
When coming to Beihai, Silver Beach is a must-see. I have always heard that Silver Beach is known as "the best beach in the world". Now that I have come here in person, I understand the origin of this title, because this beach is really super wide. Of all the beaches I have seen, the only one that can rival it in vastness is Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia.
When we went that day, it was cloudy at first and the sky was a bit gray, but the sea surface was still green when viewed in the distance. So, if you come to Silver Beach, be sure to arrive on a sunny day.
But luckily, after we strolled on the Silver Beach for a while, the sky started to clear up. The sun shines on the sea like sparkling silver, it’s really beautiful!
By the way, on the way back, we met a commercial photographer on the beach. He held up a SLR, clicked at us, and then started selling us photos. Thinking that Gou Can and I hadn't taken a photo together for a long time, I asked him to help take a few pictures, and finally spent 30 yuan to buy three of them!
Although Gou Can said it was unnecessary and a rip-off, 10 yuan a photo is actually not expensive. More importantly, we really don’t have many photos together. When you get older in the future, you will probably be very happy when you see these photos.
Oh, right! There is still a long way to go to the entrance of Silver Beach Scenic Area, so I suggest you buy a shared bicycle. Riding a bicycle on the seaside road with the person you like, blowing the sea breeze, it is a kind of long-lost youth.
See the arcade buildings and reminisce about the old days of the city
Beihai Old Street has the longest straight line and the best-preserved arcade building that combines Chinese and Western styles in the Lingnan region of China.
As the historical business card of the city of Beihai, the old street embodies the city's lifestyle: various antiques, the Maritime Silk Road Museum, the Timeless Post Office, literary cafes, various handicraft shops, the Beihai Sea Painting Gallery, and the Christian Church …
Because it is the off-season for tourism and it is during the week, there are only a handful of tourists on the old street. Many shops are closed for the holidays, and only a few shops are still open to welcome customers.
If you walk along the arcades of Bei Hailao Street, you will see many places that are still marked with the marks of time-honored brands from the past. Although most of these time-honored shops are gone, the prosperity of the past can still be seen from the buildings on the entire street.
Perhaps, in the eyes of most tourists, there is nothing particularly novel about the old street, except for some dilapidated arcade buildings that can be used as a background for taking photos. But this street has existed for more than 200 years. It has witnessed the old days of this city and has seen countless people passing by and stories that happened here.
See the forest on the sea, pick up shells, catch crabs, and catch the sea
Golden Bay Mangrove is an attraction that combines coastal wetlands and fishermen culture. Actually, we had no plan at the beginning. It was just that it was too early to leave Guantouling to watch the sunset, so we added this place temporarily. After driving to the entrance of the scenic spot, we found that there was still a ticket fee. We, stingy people, made a decisive U-turn. On the way back, we saw some cars parked on the roadside, and then someone entered the mangrove forest from the fence. So, we also parked the car on the side of the road and followed the footsteps of our "predecessors" and entered the mangroves.
Mangroves are known as "sea forests". Whenever the tide rises, these low shrubs will be submerged under the water, and they will be exposed when the tide recedes. Therefore, after the tide goes out, people will pick up shellfish and catch crabs here and enjoy the fun of catching the sea.
We didn't go into the scenic spot, but we took the wild road and saw acres of mangroves and snail diggers. Walking in the woods is also a kind of wild fun without being disturbed.
If you have enough time, I would suggest you come here to catch the sea, pick up shells on the beach, dig snails in the forest, and experience the joy of being a fisherman.
Waves, rocks, ruins and a sunset that couldn’t wait
Guantouling was our last stop in Beihai, and the weather was particularly sunny that day. I originally wanted to go to the beach for a beautiful sunset, but who would have thought that at around 5 o'clock, the sun suddenly hid in the clouds, until When we left, we couldn't catch the sunset, which was a bit of a pity.
crown The most famous attraction at Touling Beach is the "Seas Dry Up and Rocks Rotten", but what is disappointing is that it is actually just an artificial sea turtle, and the words "Seas Dry Up and Rocks Rotten" are written on the rocks, which is not very interesting. Many couples and grandpas and aunts who are taking wedding photos like to pose there. Compared with that popular attraction, we feel that the large reefs and ruins on the beach have a different feature.
If comes to Beihai next time, should choose to wait for a sunny day, a blue sky, and a sunset on the vast seaside in summer. Day.
Because I was still breastfeeding, I didn’t plan a long trip to Beihai this time, and I didn’t go to Weizhou Island. I just chose to walk around the seaside town of Beihai. Because we were traveling out of season in winter, the city was very deserted. Without the crowds of tourists, our pace slowed down. We were no longer in a hurry. We wandered around leisurely, taking our time and enjoying the two days. Three days of slow life in a small town.
In the sea breeze, we held hands and unlocked a new destination. Although its sea is not as stunning as Australia's, the food is not as good as Chengdu, and the city's history is not as rich as Xi'an, what we enjoy is an exclusive memory that belongs to two people.
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