An ideal break

In a fast-changing country like China, people must adjust their plans to keep pace with the changing situation from time to time. As the government has revamped the country's holiday schedule this year, so must we.

We lose a "golden week" as the May 1 holiday was trimmed from three days last year to one working day. Instead, we will have three new one-day holidays, Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) in April, Dragon Boat Festival in June and Mid-Autumn Festival in Sept.

The exact date of each festival varies on the Western calendar because each is calculated according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Always tied to weekends, it means three new three-day holidays in the coming months. The nearest one is the Qingming Festival holiday, which will fall on April 4-6.

It is often more difficult to plan a short trip than a longer one, as you don't have much time to spend on the road. Fortunately the country's public transport has improved a lot. We still have numerous destinations to choose from while planning our "shrinking" holidays.

Off-season trips can be a pleasant surprise. A three-day sojourn to the Yellow Sea's Dawangjia Island, in the Shicheng Archipelago, from Beijing in early spring, is a trip of this kind.

You can have two nights on the island and a half-day to explore the beautiful seaside city of Dalian, Liaoning province.

From Dalian, one of the most prosperous cities in Northeast China, which is perched on the Liaodong Peninsula and borders the Yellow Sea to the north, you can hire a taxi and head north for Zhuanghe.

About 170 km northeast of Dalian, Zhuanghe is the town closest to Shicheng Archipelago, a chain of more than 70 islands, isles and big reefs. The taxi ride costs about 300 yuan ($42) and takes two hours.

In this slack season for tourists there is just one passenger ship sailing twice a day between Zhuanghe and Dawangjia Island.

The one-and-a-half-hour journey on the boat is pleasant in early spring. As there are few local passengers or tourists, you can leave your luggage in the cabin, go onto the deck and enjoy the warm sunshine and ocean view.

After a stop at Shicheng Island and having passed several small rocky isles, you will cruise through a sea full of floats marking fish traps. Seagulls feed or rest around the floats and are indifferent to the passing boats.

On the south of the float-dotted sea is Dawangjia Island. There is a conspicuous lighthouse on top of a hill to the south of the island.

The ferry port of the island is small but tidy. Dozens of fishing boats are anchored there. The ticket center, with a clock tower and the Gongshang (Commerce and Industry) Hotel, are the two major buildings in a small square behind the port.

The hotel is the only place on the island providing standard rooms with air conditioning and 24-hour hot water. During low season, you need to pay only 120 yuan ($17) for a room with two beds.

"In the high season, between May and August, I can't reserve a room for you no matter how much you want to pay me," a receptionist says. "Because the hotel will always be packed."

In the off-season, however, you have the opportunity to be the hotel's only customer. Besides the decent room, you can enjoy good food too. A big bowl of mixed vegetables is 18 yuan ($2.60); a dish of fresh mussels is 20 yuan ($2.80); fresh yellow croaker is 60 yuan ($8.50) per kg.

The major interest is a boat trip to two big reefs near the island - White Reef and Black Reef. Standing side by side, about 1 km east of the island, there are colonies of several species of cormorants and seagulls.

To take a closer look at the two reefs, you need to hire a small fishing boat. Fifty yuan ($7.1) for an hour or 100 yuan ($14) for three hours on the sea, the price is quite reasonable.

It takes just 20 minutes to go from the port to the two reefs, but you can ask the boatman to let the boat drift for a while near the reefs, so as to enjoy watching the seabirds flying or landing on the reef.

After spending the night you can explore a fishing village on the western corner of the island in the morning. On the shell-covered beach, you can see hundreds of wild ducks feeding close to the shore.

In the afternoon, you can hike the hill up to the lighthouse. A path stretches up to the lighthouse, along a ridge, and passes woods and several lookout points. From here you can enjoy a bird's-eye view of the two bays on the northern and southern sides of the island. The northern bay, with the Black and White Reefs, bordered by the curving coast, is especially beautiful.

After two nights on the island, you can return to Dalian by noon of the third day and explore the city's numerous fine examples of colonial architecture, or relax at a few beautiful beaches in the afternoon. Finally, enjoy a seafood restaurant dinner to finish off the perfect off-season trip.

(China Daily 03/27/2008 page19)