Discover Qingdao
No.1 and No.2 Bathing Beaches
第一、第二海水浴场
Qingdao has nine public bathing beaches; the two in Shinan are the historic ones, No.2 built in the 1930s below the Badaguan villas and quieter than the crowded No.1 nearby.
The story
What makes this place special
Qingdao's numbered bathing beaches are a legacy of the resort city built under German and then Japanese and Republican administration, when sea bathing was the point of the place. Number One Bathing Beach is the big crescent on the north side of Qingdao Bay, immediately east of Zhanqiao pier and facing Xiao Qingdao island. Number Two is smaller and hidden inside the Badaguan villa quarter; built in 1934 as the Shanhaiguan Road bathing beach, it was initially reserved for foreign residents and closed to ordinary Qingdao citizens, and opened to the public later. The swimming season is short: official water-quality and temperature monitoring at Qingdao's beaches runs from 1 July to 30 September, and the beaches open later and close earlier than southern Chinese ones.
What you’ll discover
Number One is a wide sand crescent with changing rooms, showers, lifeguards and a backdrop of the old town's red roofs — in July and August it is packed shoulder to shoulder, and in October it is a long empty beach with people collecting shellfish. Number Two is a small sheltered bay reached through the villa streets, rockier at the edges, quieter, and with the headland and Huashilou above it. Both have hard changing and shower facilities behind the sand.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Swimming is realistically a July-to-September activity here; this is northern China and the sea is cold either side of that. Out of season the beaches are still the best walk in the city.
- Number Two is the better beach and almost nobody finds it, because the entrance is through the Badaguan streets rather than off the main seafront.
- Water quality and temperature at Number One are published weekly by the environment ministry during the season, and the beach does close — for weather and for water quality — so check on the day rather than on arrival.
- Go at dawn. Local people swim before work year round, including in winter, and the beach at six in the morning is a completely different place from the beach at two in the afternoon.
- At low tide the rocks at either end of both beaches fill with people gathering clams and seaweed, which is more interesting than the sand. Check the tide table.
When to come
July to September for swimming, with the water warmest in August. For walking, May and October: warm, clear and empty. Avoid the first week of August, when the beer festival fills the city.
Getting around
The promenades, changing blocks and showers behind both beaches are level and paved, and Number One is step-free from the seafront road, so the setting and the view are fully accessible. Getting onto the sand itself is the usual barrier and there is no matting or amphibious chair to rely on. Number Two is harder to reach because the approach through Badaguan is downhill on sloping streets with steps near the shore.
Worth knowing before you go
No.2 is the one to pick - it sits inside the Badaguan villa quarter, so you can combine beach and architecture in one walk.
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