Peach of a Beach

A weekend at Golden Beach - Jin Sha Tan. The weather is still warm here, but beach season is on its way out. Still people flock to the beach, not to lay out and get a tan, but simply to socialize. After a bus ride of around 30 minutes, we finally arrived. The beach area is surrounded by a well kept park complete with a mini-fair which you can see in the background of the picture below. The beach is wide, especially at low tide. The sand, from which it derives its name, is a golden brown and very wet and hard. A great beach for bocce ball, riding your bike, or renting an ATV!


The first part of the beach is surrounded by statues and umbrellas, tables, and tents for rent. There are people who follow you around the entire beach asking you to rent something. We started a feud between 2 women because we rented one woman's table (less than $3 American for the entire day!) over another that had been following us around. They kept shouting for about 15 mins after we had sat down and even shouted at us! But our renter ended up being very nice, and Kendall was quite pleased with himself because he was able to read the chinese characters she wrote in the sand.


Standing in front of the Sea of Japan. The water is a bit cold but very clear and clean (surprisingly).
I got quite a few stares when I took my cover-up off to lay on the beach. All the other girls were wearing full outfits (even playing in the ocean in nice pants and tops), while I was in what I feel is an actual bathing suit. We also got strange looks for bringing towels with us; apparently no one brings a towel to the beach....
There were a few girls wearing bathing suits like below with tops and skirts for bottoms. But most were in one pieces if they were in a suit at all. Full coverage is key.
One of the best ways to amuse yourself at the beach is to cover your friend or yourself with the wet sand as seen in the background below. Most of the kids, from toddler to about teenage years, prefer to do this completely naked.
Another beach activity is to climb the rocks jutting out into the sea and hunt for mussels, shrimp, and squid which they grill right there next to the water. They smelled good, but I'm sure you'd regret it soon afterward.

By far though, my favorite people watching moments were when the guys frolicked through the sand with their matching speedo boy shorts. That, or see-through boxers is the choice cool man beach outfit, no matter your size or stature!So after a day that consisted of watching men drive dune buggeys around trying to persuade us to rent them, being continually stared at and pointed at, being asked to take pictures with people (perhaps they believe we could be famous, but who knows?), seeing a lot of little naked boys, and having a generally fantastic people watching experience, I think the beach trip was a success!

DB & KM