Days 250 to 252 - Friday July 10 to Sun July 12 - Trip to Xi Chong Beach (a la Pierre)

Nearing the end of our stay, we finally decide to catch up with the summer. We had visited Conrad, a friend of mine from New Brunswick who also works here in China, two weeks prior and had thought about going to the beach for a weekend. We don't have a lot of Chinese beach experience, but Conrad and his wife Yen are very keen on organizing a wonderful beach weekend for everyone.

We get a great house a short walk from a beach about two hours outside of Shenzhen for Saturday night and we set out right around noon on Saturday to look for a couple of vans with drivers that could take us out there.

Oh, the adventure of transportation in China... After about a half hour of bargaining with various drivers, we are on our way through the city's dense traffic, which is as smooth as can be expected, and it isn't until we get within about 15 km of our destination that we hit our first snag.

Once you branch off the highways in China, roads can be sort of touch and go, with frequent construction. Our beach just just happens To be at the end of one of these improvement projects and traffic is backed up quite a ways, what with just one lane open. To make matters worse, drivers in this country can be extremely impatient and generally ignore traffic rules. This makes for a lot of cars trying to skip ahead in the queue by driving up the wrong lane and wedging themselves wherever they can, which when combined with a narrow road and oncoming traffic, causes even worse blockage.

At some point while we are parked and waiting, some drivers coming the other way tell us to forget about getting through for the day. This of course prompts our driver, for whom time is money, to suggest that we walk the rest of the way. He says it was only a few kilometers (though we later learn that it's actually more like 10km). "Not our problem", we reply, so we continue waiting and eventually get moving slowly through one or two more queues, some very short rain downpours and a minor bus/car scrape - the latter is only resolved after the bus driver responsible coughs up about $30 to pay for the scratch on the car at the insistence of its driver who is blocking the road with his vehicle - only to arrive at the beach much later than expected and to be told that it's "closed" due to an approaching typhoon.

After unloading our things, we decide to check things out for ourselves, as the immediate weather doesn't seem overly threatening. We watch a few cars and motorcycles pass through and figure there isn't much of a problem. A 10 minute argument with the gate warden later, we arrange to be let onto the beach under the supervision of the owner of the house we rented (we're told were not allowed to go in the water, however).

Actually, from what I understand, cranky gate lady tells us the first time that these people going to the beach are "bosses" (owners, whatever). The next two or three vehicles waved through prompt us to ask if these too (the family in the subcompact, the two guys on an old moto, etc.) are "bosses", to which there is no reply... Guess the government doesn't like it when tourists drown, but all the locals who go in to the beach while we are arguing are apparently expendable. The adherence to obviously ridiculous protocol can be downright infuriating sometimes.

Finally, on we walk to the lovely beach in the late afternoon only to see it being thoroughly enjoyed by a few hundred Chinese folk. No ominous weather in sight...


Dre and Conrad enjoy some volleyball, Yen poses in the sand.



Conrad and Yen, then Dianna and I.




And a laser pointer smiley face.


After supper, we head back to the house, enjoy a few beers and play a game of the legendary "Three Man" (possibly the greatest drinking game ever conceived), as foretold in the prophecy.

The following day we head back to the beach, have brunch at a seaside restaurant and take advantage of the absolutely beautiful weather.



Not everybody wants to swim all day though and we rent a tent shelter for the day.




Some people bring their own portable shelter. In China, umbrellas are not only for rain coverage but also for sun coverage.


I also finally get the trick of body surfing. I must mention that the waves at this beach are absolutely fantastic. 5 footers come by on a regular basis. No photos available, but it's the most fun I've ever had at a beach.

Conrad explains to me that what you have to do to body surf: Position yourself and wait for one of the big waves until it starts to crest about 5 feet away from you. Once it reaches that point, start swimming away from it frantically and as soon as it's right behind you, try to bring up your feet as high as you can. Get as horizontal as possible and try to bring your feet a little higher still, kicking all the time. If you get it right, you end up riding inside the wave up to your waist and paddling with your arms like mad so that the wave doesn't flip you head over heels. Catch a good wave and you can ride it 50 feet or more.

We get in a few good hours of body surfing, get some decent sunburns and head back to town. The traffic is mercifully quicker on the way back and I get a few last photos. There's the warning sign with what looks like an alien falling into a canal (you can see his communication dish in the background) and I managed to catch the beautiful colors of someone's umbrella by the van window.