We spent the morning at the beach for Father's Day yesterday. One of the things that I love about our city is that it's relatively clean and close to the beach. I'm actually not a huge beach fan, but more of a mountain person (which our city also has....ahh, I love our city). But there are a few things about Chinese beaches that are a little different from American beaches.
1. Because we are from Houston, the only beach we went to growing up was Galveston. And to call that a beach is a bit of a stretch. It's more of a sandy landfill surrounded by a liquid that some refer to as water. I hesitate in classifying it as water, because it's oily, brown and murky. So coming to a Chinese beach isn't much of an adjustment. Our Florida and California friends would probably blow a gasket.
2. The wonderful thing about Chinese beaches is that very few people actually wear bathing suits. Yesterday, we saw maybe 3 kids in suits. The rest were in clothes or underwear. A few adult males had on suits, the rest of us were all covered. It was nice to go to a beach where you didn't have to explain to your girls why wearing floss for a bathing suit is not appropriate, or to shield your sons eyes from the impending doom of the female body. It was a nice family outing.
3. I realize that there was seaweed, gloves, bottles, plastic bags and a dead, bloated rat that washed up onto shore, but it gave us a chance to bury to rat and use the trash to build castles.
4. It's not uncommon to see kids using the potty just wherever they feel like going. I realize this is gross to most, but when you're at a Chinese beach, it's totally ok to de-pants your kids and let them go in the ocean. When you've got 4 little ones and no public bathrooms, this is the best cultural phenomenon around. Did we partake in this activity....yes....multiple times.
I love this place.
