It could have been a scene straight from a glossy travel brochure; blue skies, a golden beach, bikini-clad sunbathers and happy children making sandcastles.
But this wasn't a holiday spot in Spain or Portugal. This was Beidaihe, a Chinese resort 150 km east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea.
Six months in China, and having survived our first harsh winter, it was time for a trip to the seaside. Beidaihe aroused our curiosity, as this is where senior Chinese leaders retreat for their annual summer conclave to plot strategy for the coming year.
While President Jiang Zemin, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and the cabinet fly by helicopter to Beidaihe, we took the train. Tempted to take a "soft seat" carriage, (first class), we opted for the hard seat so we could really soak up the "Chinese" experience.
Imagine a frantic Heuston Station on a Bank Holiday weekend, multiply it by 10, and you have some idea of the scene at a bustling Beijing Railway Station at 7 a.m last Friday week. We were the only western people in our spotlessly-clean carriage, packed with Chinese heading to Beidaihe for the weekend. There were couples with their single child, elderly people drinking from their jars of green tea and gangs of young people, in their late teens and early twenties, listening to music on their ghetto blasters and playing cards and Chinese chess. The sheer noise and enthusiasm of our Chinese travelling companions initially bewildered us. But it didn't take us long to get caught up in the buzz and sense of anticipation. The catering staff passed through our carriage carrying huge stainless steel pots of "cha". The presence of our children, and their three visiting Irish cousins, aroused huge curiosity. Children transcend language barriers, and within an hour our gang were playing with new Chinese friends.
Three hours later we arrived in Beidaihe, where we were booked to stay in the grandly-named Guest House for Diplomatic Missions, which opened in 1951, two years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, (PRC).
The beach was five minutes from the guesthouse, and access was through a reception building. We were amazed to see there were two doors; one with a sign "Foreign Guests", and the other for Domestic Guests. Foreigners were led to a reserved area of beach, separated from the ordinary Chinese by rusting, white six-foot railings, something we found disconcerting. Between our section and the Chinese section, there was a small roped-off area reserved for veteran Communist Party cadres, those who worked "underground" for the Party against the ruling Kuomintang authorities prior to 1949 and the founding of the PRC. These cadres also get free bus and train travel and medical cards. It's estimated that, with the passage of time, only about 20,000 are left around China.
In Beidaihe last week, the now elderly men and women stood out with their distinctive old-fashioned orange swimming caps as they took to the warm Bohai Sea. Beidaihe was built in the early part of the century and was initially used by English, French, Germans, Russians and Italians. Some of the European-style architecture remains. The resort opened up to Chinese 50 years ago and between guesthouses, bed-and-breakfasts and hotels, the town can now accommodate 100,000 people a night.
There is innocence about Beidaihe you won't find in European resorts. There are no gangs of young people drinking and clubbing until the early hours. Here most facilities shut down by midnight.
There was an 11.30 p.m. curfew in our guesthouse. We met the three young lads we shared our train carriage with strolling through the town's thriving market making their own fun. No alcohol in sight.
Karaoke seemed to be the height of entertainment. We passed one hairdresser which doubled as a Karaoke bar, with young men sitting in the big black leather hairdresser's chair singing their hearts out.
Beidaihe is famous for its seafood, and every restaurant had dozens of red basins full of exotic fish lined up outside. There is huge hustling for business. The fact that the menus were mostly in Chinese left us in some difficulty!
At the end of this month up to 200 Chinese political and military leaders will converge in a complex of luxury villas in Beidaihe to take decisions that will affect 1.3 billion people, one fifth of the world's population. Their accommodation will be heavily guarded and not visible to ordinary mortals. The locals are very protective of their important guests. Last week, taxi drivers and guesthouse workers would not say where exactly the leaders stay. While the Communist Party leadership is not due to change until 2003, this year's meeting will focus on the new generation.
miriamd@163bj.com