Rochie In China

On the way to Qinhuangdao

On Monday the 31st of May David, Wayne, Goku, James and I went to Qinhuangdao to check the hotel and area of the Tangshan EF 2010 Summer Camp. We left Tangshan EF at about 9:30am along the way we had a little hold up because of some road works and the car got swarmed by bees some pictures of them below. After getting through the hold up we stopped for a smoke break and some more fuel at a truck stop. James spotted an interesting Chinglish (Chinese English) sign which I couldn’t give up taking a photo of. Back in the car we ended up arriving at Qinhuangdao around 12:20. We drove around a little while before finding a seafood restaurant.

 In Qinhuangdao

Driving around in Qinhuangdao I had the opportunity to take some interesting pictures. Qinhuangdao is an interesting city, because of the architecture. Qinhuangdao is a coastal city of China were the Chairman spends his summers there is much of the beach that is restricted for the Chairman. In the restricted areas there is a strong military and police presence. Supposedly before the Chairman arrives every summer the beach is cleaned of all things including shells. This is so there is no danger to the Chairman.

At Lunch

We stopped at a seafood restaurant where David ordered a great feed of seafood for us. Now since I don’t eat seafood I promised I would try everything once so I tried the pippies, but the texture and taste were not for me. Goku enjoyed them much more than I did. I didn’t mind the tomato and beef soup (it was quite nice). Regular favourites of Jing Jiang Rou Si (beef strips and spring onion rolled in tofu squares) and Di San Xian (3 treasures dish – Potato, Eggplant, and Capsicum) got me through lunch.

The Hotel for Summer Camp

We arrived at the Army Base / Hotel at around 2:45 where we had a walk through of the living areas and teaching areas of the Summer Camp. We all were okay with the state of the Hotel (needs to be cleaned). The rooms all looked neat and tidy. The hotel used to belong to the army base but now has been okayed to be used for the public. There is plenty of area for the children to play and run around in the grounds. After looking around the hotel we were taken to the private section of beach belonging to this base.

The Beach

After a 5 min Drive to get to the beach we enjoyed the view of the Yellow Sea. I snapped some photos and had a little discussion about the beach. This section of the peach is closed to the public and during summer will be heavily protected by the army. After checking out the beach we were taken to the train station.

The Qinhuangdao Train Station

We arrived at the train station at 3:47. David went in and bought us our return ticket to go home. We only had to wait 30 mins for our train.  We caught the 4:21 train which took us a little over two and a half hours to get back to Tangshan. (about 50 mins of that time was spent sitting at different stops along the way. We arrived back in Tangshan around 10 to 7:00. Overall it wasn’t a bad day and it gave me a chance to see Qinhuangdao for a short time.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Jamie (Rochie) Rochfort.

P.S. If you wish any of the panoramic photos send me an e-mail and I’ll see what I can do.