Beidaihe beach: Retreat of China's top leaders
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Late Chairman Mao Zedong takes a vacation at the Beidaihe Beach Resort in 1954. Photo by Lyu Houmin / For China Daily |
Top beaches in China include Sanya in Hainan province, Qingdao in Shandong, Xiamen in Fujian and Beidaihe in Hebei.
Beidaihe, a district in Qinhuangdao city with population of about 600,000, is not the beach with the clearest waters, most comfortable weather or even most advanced entertainment facilities.
But it is the most special of them all.
Beidaihe has been popular as a summer resort since the early 1920s. But it hit hallowed status only after it became the beach resort for top Party and State officials to work and rest in summer.
Sun Zhisheng was born in Beidaihe and has lived and worked in the area for decades. The director of the Qinhuangdao Historical and Cultural Research Society, in his 60s, has lived through the highs and lows of the area that has been closely tied to the country's development.
"It was only after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 that Beidaihe began to enjoy a completely new life of its own," Sun said.
Not long after the Communist Party of China assumed power in Beijing in 1949, it began to think about Beidaihe as the ideal place for accomplished soldiers and distinguished individuals who had contributed to the founding of New China to recuperate and escape the sweltering summers of Beijing. Apart from its proximity to the capital and natural scenery, Beidaihe also boasts more than 700 well-designed villas and tourist facilities.
In April 1949, the Party Central Committee sent people to Beidaihe to set up a rehabilitation center. They took over some of the deserted houses and purchased other buildings in what is now called the West Hill - the site of today's facilities for State leaders. Other rehabilitation centers for elderly workers, coal miners, railway workers, People's Liberation Army soldiers, diplomats and foreign experts were also set up.
In the autumn of 1953, the central government decided to set Beidaihe as its summer office with several new houses, roads and other facilities.
Top leaders also used Beidaihe to conduct meetings, discuss important issues and make major decisions.
From 1953 to 1965, almost all important summer meetings were held in Beidaihe with many important decisions made from its villas.
These included the launch of the Anti-rightist Campaign in 1957; shelling of Kinmen, an island off the Fujian coast controlled by the Kuomintang in 1958; and the launch of the Great Leap Forward.
The system was suspended twice. Once was during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and the other was from 1979 to 1984, when the central government decided to open almost all the sanatoriums to the public to develop tourism.
New custom
The outbreak of SARS in 2003 also disrupted the annual top-level trips to the summer resort.
Beidaihe was China's summer capital before the summer administrative system was abolished in 2003.
Many people believe Beidaihe's political influence has been greatly reduced since then. But Wang Yukai, a professor of public administration with the Chinese Academy of Governance, said a new custom has formed in which central government leaders and some retired cadres stay in the Beidaihe retreat for their summer holidays or for recuperation.
According to the Global Times, Chinese media have rarely reported on the leaders' activities during their stay in Beidaihe since former president Hu Jintao abolished the yearly outing.
Meetings between the top leaders and their advisers have since become a sign that the top leaders are holding an "informal" conference in Beidaihe to discuss something crucial.
On Aug 5, Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, met about 60 top-level scientists and experts in other fields who were enjoying a State-sponsored summer vacation at Beidaihe.
President Xi Jinping entrusted Liu to extend greetings and good wishes to the experts at the meeting.
"Beidaihe is the summer resort in China with the most political significance. As a former summer office of the central government, it was once the government's decision-making center," Wang was quoted by Southern Metropolis Daily as saying.
"The summer office system has been abolished but the government-sponsored vacation system for experts still exists. The recent meeting is a gesture from the government, which attaches great importance to talent."
"I have some friends who work at the Rest House for State Leaders and good friends who are local government officials. Most of my knowledge about the top leaders' work and vacation in Beidaihe was from them. I've also double-checked some of the information with the staff there," Sun said.
"The region is forbidden to outsiders but security is not so strict except in summer. I managed to visit the place four times in the past few years and my last visit was in 2010," he said.
Sun is especially fond of the architecture. He took many photos of the villas where top leaders have stayed, such as the No 95 building for Chairman Mao Zedong, a German pastor's former residence at No 27 that Premier Zhou Enlai used, and No 16, which housed Deng Xiaoping.
Exotic styles
"With some maintenance and improvement inside, more than half a century has passed and these buildings have not changed much in appearance. Most of the original owners of these villas were foreigners. These villas are rich in historical and research value; features like spacious verandas give the place an exotic feeling," he said.
The houses were mostly made of granite and located against the hills and facing the sea. No two buildings are identical, Sun said.
"The interior decoration also boasts other foreign elements like arched doors and windows and fireplaces and attics. Facilities are not luxurious but very simple. They are more like old-fashioned hotel rooms. Some of the facilities inside are quite old and cannot be compared with five-star hotels nowadays."
Luo Diandian, daughter of Luo Ruiqing, China's first minister of public security, recalled in her book that her family would move to Beidaihe every July and August. Families of top leaders would enjoy the beaches together during those stays, she wrote.
"Besides swimming, entertainment activities in Mao's period would include dancing parties or watching movies and enjoying operas," Sun said.
Marshal Zhu De was the first top Party official to vacation in Beidaihe, in June 1949. He fell in love with the place and returned every summer till his death in 1975.
As someone who enjoyed swimming, Chairman Mao was very fond of Beidaihe. He would plunge into the sea whenever he got a chance and not return to shore until he had swum his fill.
Mao first arrived at Beidaihe on April 21, 1954. He spent his longest time in Beidaihe in 1955 when he was drafting his official report on issues of agriculture and dealing with daily routines.
"Let's go to the beach, where the tide matches the tide of socialist construction," Mao told one of his guards, according to the book The Tracking Report on the Days in Beidaihe by Xu Yan, a professor from the PLA National Defense University.
A story about one of Mao's visits remains popular, Sun said. One day Mao was on a hovercraft and spotted a small boat. A fisherman was found taking crabs out from the net. Mao showed great interest in the catch and the two had a nice talk for a long time.
Even so, the fisherman did not recognize Mao and said he had to go back to sell the crabs. Mao bought all the crabs and the fisherman was very happy. When he returned, Mao treated all the employees in his office to a crab feast.
Late leader Deng Xiaoping also became a frequent visitor to Beidaihe following his first visit in 1953. Deng often took his family to the resort for summer vacation. Every time Deng arrived at Beidaihe, he would swim in the sea after a short rest and did the same on the day of his departure, recalled people close to him.
In 1986, when he was meeting Japanese guests in Beidaihe who asked about his health, Deng said he had two ways to test his condition - whether he could still swim in the sea and whether he could still play cards.
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