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At The #1 Beach

July 16, 2015

By: Taylor

Today we went to the number one beach in Dalian. That’s what everyone in Dalian calls it because it is supposed to be the best beach in this area. Its real name is Golden Pebble beach – Jinshitan is the Chinese name. I was a bit nervous because the beach we went to before was super polluted.

It’s an hour and a half drive to Jinshitan beach. Our first stop there was to find dinosaur rock – a famous landmark at the beach. We walked for a while and still couldn’t find the rock so we asked someone and we laughed when we found out that we were literally standing right on top of it. We hiked a bit back and then we could really see the rock. It was stretching over getting a drink of water. My mom thought it was really neat but I wasn’t that impressed.

Here’s dinosaur rock

The rocky part of the coastline

Next, we went to the swimming part of the beach. We met up with my friend Teddy and his classmate. My first impression of the beach was how hard it was on my feet. It was made up of tiny pebbles instead of sand. No wonder they call it Golden Pebble beach. I was happy to see the water wasn’t polluted. We couldn’t go too deep in the water because there were huge waves, a big undercurrent, and a sharp drop off. We had lots of fun jumping in the waves anyway. We also dug a big hole in the sand – even though the pebbles hurt a little. The water was pretty warm but the air wasn’t.

Rachel, Sarah Ann and I are in the water while Christian helps Teddy dig a hole in the pebbles

Chinese people have a different feeling toward the sun than we do. Chinese women don’t want to get any extra sun because they don’t want to get tan. Pale skin is supposed to be more beautiful here. So, there are more umbrellas out on sunny days than there are on rainy days. They wear long sleeves and pants when they’re out in the sun – even when it’s hot out. And some of them wear these mask things to cover their faces. I guess there probably aren’t tanning salons in China.

We couldn’t find anything to eat for dinner because all they had there was fried squid on a stick – with tentacles. We had to pay 5 RMB to change our clothes and the changing rooms weren’t too impressive. It was just a big open room. My sisters had to pay to change in a big tent basically.

Here’s a picture of a sign my mom took in the bathroom. Anyone know what it means? We don’t.

We went back home and just ate snacky food for dinner from the little store called “Quick” on our street. Overall, the beach was better than I expected but I’m not sure it’s the #1 beach I’ve ever been to.