Beidahe, a Chinese resort

For the weekend I went to Qinghuangdao, a large city in Hebei province, a two hours by train away from Tianjin. On Saturday, a visit to Shanhaiguan was on the program, the place where the Great Wall meets the sea, some places where full of tourists but there was a spot further inland where one could walk more peacefully, with only a few Chinese tourists and a group of Russian tourists. Strangely, at a shop, the vendor replied to me in Russian after I said something in English. Sunday was the day to go exploring the beach, the resort of Beidahe was easily accessible by local bus. Plenty of attractions were made to accomodate the taste of Russian visitors, there is even a statue of Gorki overlooking the sea. A large park is full of statues dedicated to various sports, a sign that some events of the Summer Olympics 2008 took place there. At the restaurant, the waitress talked to me in Russian, it took her some time to understand that I did not, and we switched to a mix of Chinese and English. The restaurant was serving a mix of Chinese and Russian dishes, and most customers came from the giant to the North.