Summer 2021 Wrap-Up — Myriad Misadventures

I had pretty high hopes for traveling over the summer this year after the mostly travel last summer and this past Chinese New Year (which are the main times I have to travel). My expectations weren’t as high as in years past because I still can’t travel internationally but I was still hoping for something good. And it was definitely the best bit of travel since the very beginning of 2020, but it still wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for.

I talked about our trip to Beihai and Weizhou Island in Guangxi Province in a post earlier this summer. In that post I also talked about what I was hoping to do for the rest of the summer. Some of it ended up panning out but some of it did not.

The trip to Guangi was definitely the biggest trip we had planned for the summer so it was great that that worked out. But we’d also planned on doing a trip to a bigger city I hadn’t been to yet. Originally the plan was Shanghai but the tickets were a little expensive so we were considering maybe Chengdu or another city not too far away that wasn’t too expensive to get to. And after that, towards the end of the summer, one last short trip to one of the beaches outside Shenzhen.

The city trip ended up not happening unfortunately. We couldn’t find somewhere we wanted to go in the price range we were hoping for before running out of time. But the beach trip did happen. We went to Xichong, which is a beach out past Dapeng Fortress on the Dapeng Peninsula. We were only there for two days a little before I had to go back to work but I already can’t wait to return.

I’d heard great things about both Xichong and the nearby Dongchong but hadn’t been there because they’re kind of far from the city. They did not disappoint. I’ve been to a couple of beaches in Shenzhen but I’ve never been too impressed by them. While the beach itself often looked nice once I got into the water I was often let down a little. Sometimes they’re kind of dirty and often they’re VERY hot. I felt like some kind of soup ingredient. But Xichong was great. Not too hot and not too cold. Just cool enough to be a great escape from the summer heat. There wasn’t much to do in the area we stayed in so the beach was definitely the biggest draw. If (hopefully when) I go back I’m not sure if I’ll stay in the same place or see if there another area either with more to do or on/closer to the beach.

That’s probably the end of this year’s travel. I’ve occasionally traveled during the National Day holiday at the beginning of October but it’s not my favorite time to travel and I doubt I’ll go anywhere this year. Instead I’m hoping to film a new fight video. So now it’s time to look forward to next Chinese New Year.

The summer didn’t turn out quite how I had hoped it would but it was definitely the best bit of traveling I’ve had since COVID started and for that I’m thankful.

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