Having just finished visiting where the great wall enters the sea, we are driving around central Qínhuángdǎo looking for a place to kill the next couple of hours. A modern mall where the kids could run around and we could relax a bit would be nice. Aidan is sitting in the passenger seat with Yang and wants an ice cream from KFC. I am trying to navigate the traffic with is heavy and tight and slow going. I light turns red and I stop. Just then Yang’s mom Yihong – who has been soundly asleep in the back seat along with Lydia and Elisa – wakes up. Without missing a beat she says “Lai Ba” (“we’re here”), wakes Lydia, and opens the car door. She’s about to step out into traffic when Yang calls her back and she realizes we have not parked but remain stuck in traffic.
The October holiday this year is one day longer than in past years as the government combined the mid autumn festival (aka mooncake) holiday with the three day national day break. By making everyone work weekends on the bookends of the holiday, we end up with eight consecutive days off work – October 1st through the 8th. And the thing about being off work is you need work at it. What to do? Yang had the idea that the two of us would travel to the grasslands of inner mongolia, live in huts for a couple of nights, and enjoy the outdoors. I was good with that assuming toilets. That plan morphed into a trip to the nearest ocean resort, with kids and mother in law in tow. A 3.5 hour drive from Beijing to Nandaihe and a hotel room overlooking the ocean. The weather was perfect fall weather – not hot or cold, just comfortable. Soon after arrival we made our way down to the beach and while I am not a big fan of sand and stayed fully dressed, the kids got fully into it with Elisa eventually leading the charge.
Kids having fun on the beach with Elisa helping Yang negotiate for beads with a local vendor.
Even though the weather was fine, there were only a few people in swimsuits and very few foreigners around. Some Chinese used the good weather to take wedding photos on the beach.
Aidan and Lydia – especially Lydia – stood out and got lot of attention for their looks and their Chinese. People wanted to take photos with them and Aidan and Lydia were good about it. There was a people of time where they were both a bit hostile to being used as tourist attractions but not seemed more resigned to it, at times enjoying the attending, but mostly indifferent.
On the second day we went to lao(old)long(lion)tou(head) section of the Great Wall. It is where the great wall extends into the ocean as I guess the Mongolian horses could not swim so good. It was like the other Great Wall tourist attractions we’ve been too (#4 for me now) with a bunch of activities not related to the wall. Lydia rode on a princess horse, Aidan shot balloons, Elisa, well she didn’t do much but be dragged along.
We did eventually make it to the actual – I should say restored Wall where we took tourist photos.
After three days and two nights, it was time to head back to Beijing. The roads, by the way, are superb with the major challenge being adjusting to the wildly varying speeds of the drivers. That and listening to a car full of people talking Chinese the whole way home.