Beaches 沙灘

Just in case you didn’t already know, I’m not a surfer type and I don’t like to sun myself on the beach, but I love the ocean. There is nothing like finding a quiet spot by the ocean on a sandy beach away from it all and wandering around to the sound of the surf. Maybe I was also raised on stories of pirates 海賊 on tropical islands with beautiful sandy beaches so that inspires me as well. This is a photo of a beautiful beach we went to this past weekend. It is in a very isolated spot 遙遠的地方 that has many more sand dunes than people 沙丘比人多. Some of my favorite beaches are in Taishan 台山 and on Taiwan’s northeast coast between Iilan 宜蘭 and Hualian 花蓮.

It seems that the Chinese and in fact people in many parts of the world are not as crazy about beaches as Westerners. In the West, beaches are prized and the most expensive houses are right up on the beach where they can be destroyed by tidal waves 海嘯. There are people, surfers 衝浪的 and others, who build their lives around enjoying the ocean. That does not seem to be as true with Chinese. They go to the beach, but they do not have to possess it by living there. It doesn’t have the same allure as in the West, especially the isolated beach. People there are also not as likely to spend large amounts of time sunning 曬太陽 themselves on beaches as I pointed out in my post on differing ideals of beauty.