Golden Pebble Beach: 金石滩

Yesterday being the first day of our 4-day Mid-Autumn Festival break, the regular crew (consisting of 4 PiAers--myself, Kim, Matt, & David--and Eric, our buddy from day 1) set off for our first trip outside of the city, to Golden Pebble Beach. I haven't posted any pictures of our local Xinghai Beach for a reason. Golden Pebble Beach is supposed to be the place to go to see cool coastal rock formations...and to visit Discoveryland while you're at it, since every Chinese Beach must include a theme park. We passed on Discoveryland, taking the walking route along the coast instead. But before we could see anything that would tap into my recent passion for geology (Thanks, Geo 120!), first we had to walk past a number of luxury developments that are under construction.

So this is where you live if you have money in China...(or if you're an expat.)



I'll stay in my neighborhood, thank you very much.

Next we had to stop for some pictures with strangers, since Chinese girls love white people. I opted out.


Finally we found the coastal walking path. Not exactly the backcountry, but at least it's pretty when one of the ubiquitous construction projects or tourist stands isn't in your direct line of view.





My favorite part of the whole trip was seeing these awesome rocks:


Unfortunately to get down here I had to ignore the bedraggled rope and teenage boy in camo that marked the extent of tourist access, leaving my more law-abiding friends behind. An irresponsible (and antisocial) action on my part? Maybe. From an ecological point of view, some things obviously need to be off limits - if every Chinese tourist came down here, the coast would be a mess and plus, some Chinese girl in bad shoes would probably get hurt. I am an American who has been privileged to hike all alone in some beautiful almost-wild places, and "hiking" in China's "natural" areas is a whole different experience that I will have to accept. However, these rock formations were the best things I saw all day. I think one moment of awe was worth it.

To my disappointment, you had to pay to enter the "Geopark" to see the rest of the rock formations, and it being late in the afternoon, we decided to head back.



All in all, it was a fun trip. As Eric notes, many places in China are just another check off your list. You have to search for the jaw-droppers.