Beidaihe 北戴河 ... sun, sea and seafood ...

Went to Beidaihe 北戴河, Hebei Provincefor a weekend by the seaside of the Yellow Sea (is the nearest resort coastline  to Beijing - 3 hours-ish by train) ..... breezy sunny weather, lots of fresh swimming seafood and ice cold local beers ... enjoyed a mellow & laid-back couple of days ...

I'm still feeling larthargic and in the lazy seaside mood, so the below is lifted from trusty old Wikipedia to introduce the place   

Beidaihe District (Chinese: 北戴河区;pinyin: Běidàihé Qū;Wade-Giles: Pei Tai Ho) is adistrictinQinhuangdaomunicipality,Hebeiprovince,China. It has an area of 70.14 square kilometers and a population of 66,000. [1] is also known as abirdinghaven. The Beidaihe Beach Resort stretches 10 km from east to west, from the Yinjiao Pavilion to the mouth of the Daihe river. The beach itself is covered with fine yellow sand stretching some 100 meters to the sea. The water is shallow and welcoming for children to play in. The environment around Beidaihe is considered beautiful by many. Mt.Lianfeng near the beach has two peaks covered by abundant green pines and cypresses. Lush vegetation, caves, decorated pavilions, secluded paths and winding bridges have made it attractive to visitors from throughout China. There are still few Western tourists, and there is little proliferation of English among the local populace.

English railway engineers were the first Europeans to discover the fishing village in the 1890s and it was not long before wealthy Chinese and foreign diplomats fromBeijingandTianjinmade the village a popular destination.

Beidaihe is best known as theCommunist Party of China's summer retreat, which is still commonly used by the Party's highest leadership each July to slip away from the summer heat ofBeijingand to plan important strategies in the privacy Beidaihe offers. These conferences have been abandoned by the orderHu Jintaoin 2004, mainly for two reasons. First, a conference in a resort area appeared to contradict the goal of Hu andWen Jiabaoin projecting a frugal image for the party and second, it is a desire of the leadership under Hu to work through formal party and state mechanisms rather through informal gatherings.

AfterMao Zedongled the Communists to power in 1949, the new rulers also developed a taste for seaside atmosphere. Mao himself had a summer resort here. Sanatoriums sprang up to reward the efforts of model workers from every industry. A very large Friendship Guesthouse was constructed in 1954, one of dozens across China, to receive theSoviet"elder brothers" who came to assist Chinese development prior to tensions emerging between Soviet and Chinese leadership.

Now many Russian tourists come to the place every summer. You can see many shops and restaurants with Russian names in Beidaihe. The place is practically empty in winter.

FOOD TIME  ....  all the seafood was big, fresh, swimming and sweet tasting ....

the crabs weren't huge .... but damn, they were meaty and sweet ...

very large scallops ....

monster sea snails and succulent soft octopus ....

i just found out from google that 聖子 are called "razor clams" ...

this was 3.5 catty sea bass steam cooked with spring onions ... yum!

this cutie bro and sis pair were from the family that owned the 24hr convenience store of the hotel i stayed .... fun little terrors ....