A section of the Great Wall in Qinhuangdao

    The 2008 Beijing Olympics became an unavoidable catchword for Qinhuangdao, which, as a co-host city of the Games, staged the preliminary football matches. "Listening to the tides, viewing the sea and watching football matches," was a popular slogan seen on street signboards boasting of the coastal city's many charms as a lure to visitors during the Olympic period.

    The Beijing Olympics have expedited the city's development. When night falls, Qinhuangdao is brilliantly lit and luxuriously redecorated; green lawns, spacious squares, brand-new highrise buildings and residential quarters testify to its rapid development.

    Qinhuangdao is located at the juncture of the warm currents of the Bohai Sea and the continent. It is not too cold in the winter, and not too hot in the summer. There is also a concentration of rich tourism resources: Beidaihe, which was one of the four summer resorts of the late Qing Dynasty; Shanhaiguan, a historic fortress consisting of the Old Dragon Head, the First Pass under Heaven, the Meng Jiangnu Temple, and the Longevity Mountain, which are all 4A scenic areas; and Nandaihe, which is famous for its Golden Coast and pristine bathing beaches.

    Qinhuangdao is called a "natural oxygen bar," and a backyard garden of Beijing and Tianjin. The content of anions in the air is 7,000 per cubic centimeter. Spending the summer holidays in Qinhuangdao has become a habit for Beijing residents. It is convenient to travel from Beijing to Qinhuangdao, taking only two hours by bullet train.

    The Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center stadium looks like a white sail on the sea. Only 500 meters from the coast, one can almost hear the crashing sea waves amid the cheers of the spectators watching football matches.

    The Qinhuangdao Training Base is called a "cradle of champions." Since its construction in 1973, national teams in more than 20 events and numerous foreign sports teams have trained here. Apart from the Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sport, the Qinhuangdao Training Base has produced the largest number of world champions, including Jiang Jialiang, Li Lingwei, Lang Ping and Nie Weiping.

The Olympics Promote Tourism

    Taking advantage of its designation as an Olympic co-host city, Qinhuangdao has made great efforts to develop its tourism industry, which has seen rapid growth. By the end of 2007, its total income from tourism amounted to RMB 8.75 billion, making up 12.5 percent of the city's GDP.

    Qinhuangdao is on the coast of the Bohai Sea, and to its north are the Yanshan Mountains. To its east is the Old Dragon Head, where the Great Wall stretches into the sea, and to its west is scenic Beidaihe.

    Beidaihe is one of China's most famous bathing destinations. Along the 22.5-kilometer coastline are sand beaches and reefs, coves and capes. The clean beach is well known for its soft sand. There are also more than 20 scenic sights, such as Yingjiaoshi, Jinshanzui, Laohushi, Lianhuashi and Guanyin Temple.

    Throughout the year, Beidaihe's air quality is grade one, and the city is advanced in both forest coverage and per capita green areas. Its excellent environment has turned it into a bird habitat, and it has China's first bird reserve.

    The reserve has 409 species of bird, making up 40 percent of China's total. The Beidaihe Wetland has been included on the International Wetland Protection Network.

    Meanwhile, the city has a rich accumulation of cultural heritage. In 215 B.C., Emperor Qinshihuang sent necromancer Xu Fu to lead 500 pairs of boys and girls to seek the elixir of life in the Eastern Sea. Several years later, he toured the coast fourth time, and built a palace at Jinshanzui of Beidaihe.

    Cao Cao (155-220), ruler of the Kingdom of Wei during the Three Kingdoms Period, went to Qinhuangdao to view the tides and composed a poem. On Mount Stone, to the east, his lines survive. "Autumn wind is blowing now, as cold as then, But changed is the world of men." When Chairman Mao Zedong stayed at Beidaihe, he wrote a poem entitled "Beidaihe, to the Melody of Langtaosha (Ripples Sifting Sand)."

    Along the Great Wall there are many passes, but only Shanhaiguan (Mountain and Sea Pass) is called the "First Pass under Heaven." The walled fortress town is four kilometers in circumference. It once sat on a thoroughfare from North China to Northeast China. It now looks quite small, but historically it was an impregnable pass.