Holiday Beach, the City’s Own Strip of Sand

The sand is imported and nobody pretends otherwise. 假日海滩 Jiàrì Hǎitān, Holiday Beach, is a strip of pale sand on the west coast of 海口市 Hǎikǒu Shì, laid down along 滨海大道 Bīnhǎi Dàdào where the city meets a shore that is naturally more mudflat than beach, and it has been one of the city’s great civic instincts for decades. It is free, it is long, it is within a bus ride of the centre, and it is used the way a city beach is used: by people who come after work to walk, by families with children, by joggers and cyclists on the path behind it, and by couples at night. The water is shallow and warm and the sand is soft, and the palms behind are the ones that were planted.

The beach runs for several kilometres from the 西秀海滩 Xīxiù Hǎitān end toward 海口湾 Hǎikǒu Wān, and the two names are used loosely for the same continuous shore. Behind the sand there is a paved promenade with the usual apparatus of a Chinese seaside park: exercise equipment, a cycleway, coconut palms in rows, benches, vendors selling coconut water with a straw and 烤玉米 kǎo yùmǐ, grilled corn. At the western end the shore gets a little wilder and the development a little thinner, and there are breakwaters and rocks where people fish. The beach is at its best in the two hours around sunset, when the light goes off the water and the whole length of it is full of people walking in one direction and then the other.

What to Do With a Day

Holiday Beach is not a sight so much as a facility, and the honest way to use it is to treat it as one. Swim in the morning before the sun is fully up, when the water is flat and the sand is cool; walk or cycle the promenade in the late afternoon; eat seafood at one of the restaurants on the landward side, where the tanks hold the catch and the price is per kilo plus a cooking charge; and stay for the sunset. The 帆船帆板 fānchuán fānbǎn sailing and windsurfing base at the western end hires equipment and runs courses, and the wind on this coast is reliable enough that the sails are usually out. Children’s amusement rides and a water park used to occupy part of the strip; they open and close over the years, so check locally before promising them to anyone small.

Practicalities

Tickets. The beach, the promenade and the cycleway are free and open at all hours. There is no gate and no ticket. Charges apply only for what you hire — sun loungers, umbrellas, sailing equipment, showers and changing rooms — and for what you eat.

Opening hours. Effectively around the clock. The lifeguard service, where it operates, covers daylight hours in the swimming season; outside those hours the beach is unpatrolled, and the currents in the strait are not trivial, so swimming at night is not a good idea even where people do it.

Closing day. There is no closing day. The beach is busiest on summer evenings and on public holidays, especially the 国庆 Guóqìng week, when the sand fills to the waterline and the promenade becomes a slow procession. Winter is quieter and slightly cooler and, for many locals, the better season.

Getting there. The beach lies along 滨海大道 Bīnhǎi Dàdào in 秀英区 Xiùyīng Qū, on the west side of the city, about ten kilometres from the centre and roughly forty minutes by bus or twenty by taxi. Buses run frequently along the boulevard and stop at several points along the sand. From 海口东站 Hǎikǒu Dōng Zhàn it is a straightforward taxi ride across the city, and from 海口美兰国际机场 Hǎikǒu Měilán Guójì Jīchǎng it is around an hour by road. Parking along the seafront is limited at sunset, which is exactly when everyone arrives.

flowcloud would say that Holiday Beach is the least romantic and most useful beach in China, since it was built rather than found and the city loves it precisely because it asks nothing of anyone.

Getting there: arrive in the late afternoon, swim before the light drops if the water is calm, walk the promenade west toward the sailing base while the sun goes down, and eat at one of the seafood restaurants on the inland side once it has. Take the sandals rather than the shoes, buy a coconut from a vendor and drink it on the wall, and if you are driving, come early and park facing out, because the queue to leave at sunset is the only part of the day that is not relaxing.