Live Your Best Lives
In northeastern Liaoning, Yingkou, a coastal city known as the "Pearl of the Bohai Sea," lies. Nestled at the mouth of the Daliao River, nestled between mountains and the sea, Yingkou boasts a rich tapestry of hot springs and a uniquely endowed natural environment. It's a desirable place where "rivers meet seas, mountains blend with springs." Here, we escape the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy the bounty of nature. We can experience the vastness of the ocean, the comfort of hot springs, the delicious seafood, and savor the beauty of life...
DAY 1 Wanger Mountain - Wanger Mountain Water Park - Magic Hot Spring - Shanhai Square, Lunch: Chunhua Seafood Buffet, Accommodation: Bayuquan Beach Cabin
DAY 2 Xiongyue Botanical Garden——Return, Lunch: New Hongyun Hotel Restaurant
Yingkou, located northeast of Liaodong Bay on the Bohai Sea and at the mouth of the Daliao River, enjoys a strategic location. As the first modern port in Northeast China, it serves as the economic, financial, trade, and shipping center of the region, earning the reputation of "Shanghai beyond the Great Wall." Yingkou governs four districts and two municipalities: Zhanqian District, Xishi District, Laobian District, Bayuquan District, Gaizhou City, and Dashiqiao City.
Yingkou boasts a well-developed transportation and logistics industry, with diverse transportation options including ports, airports, high-speed rail, and expressways. Yingkou Lanqi Airport offers flights to Shanghai (Pudong), Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Chengdu, Harbin, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Jining, and Weifang.
Yingkou Railway Station includes Yingkou Station, Yingkou East Station, Gaizhou West Station, and Bayuquan Station. Yingkou Station has daily trains to Shenyang, Jilin, Yanji, and Tumen. Yingkou East Station offers direct high-speed trains and bullet trains to most cities across China.
This August, I embarked on a journey to explore Yingkou. The first stop on my trip to Yingkou was Wanger Mountain.
Wang'er Mountain is a famous mountain in southern Liaoning. It is named after a touching legend of maternal love in which a loving mother longs for her son to return and her true love moves heaven and earth.
Legend has it that long ago, a scholar lived near Xiongyue Mountain. While traveling by boat for an imperial examination, he encountered inclement weather and his boat capsized, tragically burying him in the sea. His mother, desperately missing him, eventually died on the mountaintop. The brick pagoda atop the mountain embodies this loving mother. The saying, "A mother worries even when her son is thousands of miles away," perhaps vividly captures the essence of this mountain.
The mountain was formed about 30 million years ago and is composed of volcanic rocks. Every trace on the mountain is a sea erosion platform formed by sea water erosion.
Wang'er Mountain, a steep, isolated peak at 106 meters above sea level, boasts a Tibetan-style blue-brick pagoda built in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. From a distance, it resembles an old woman perched atop the mountain, gazing out to sea day and night, longing for the return of her wandering son. Today, Wang'er Mountain has become a famous tourist attraction.
After visiting Wanger Mountain, it is naturally a must to go to the nearby Wanger Mountain Hot Spring Water Park to soak in the hot springs.
Wangershan Hot Spring Water Park is a comprehensive hot spring resort with a water park theme and large open-air hot springs as its feature. It integrates hotels, restaurants, leisure and entertainment, parent-child interaction, business meetings, and health vacations.
The entire hot spring water park is like a huge castle, with a huge water play area and various magical decorations, making you feel like you have arrived in a fairy tale water world.
The indoor water park offers over ten children's water activities, including a spiral slide, a lazy river, a children's water castle, and a family slide. The pool is also unique, with an aquarium-style underwater world on the side, complete with turtles and schools of fish.
There are more than 40 outdoor hot spring pools with different functions, allowing you to soak however you want.
The hot spring water here is rich in trace elements that are beneficial to the human body. Soaking in the hot springs under the gentle sunshine and feeling the breeze is simply a great enjoyment.
The indoor rest area has a children's naughty castle, various saunas, a restaurant, a book bar, and a lounge.
If you don’t try Chunhua Seafood Buffet, it’s like you haven’t been to Bayuquan!
Because of this sentence, I went to check in at the old seafood restaurant recommended by Yingkou locals: Chunhua Seafood City.
The sign boasts that Chunhua Seafood City boasts its own fleet, ensuring a self-sufficient supply of fresh seafood 365 days a year. The city itself is quite large, spread across three floors, and boasts a rich variety of fresh, plump, and delicious seafood, especially the crabs, which are large and delicious.
At Chunhua Seafood City, we had a buffet. Needless to say, there were big crabs, conchs, and abalone. The salmon, turbot, and sea cucumber were also good. What was more surprising was their sea urchin egg cake, which was smooth and delicious, and the Spanish mackerel dumplings, which were wrapped in a thick soup and were so delicious that they made your eyebrows drop.
Before going to Yingkou, I checked travel guides and many people recommended this Magic Hot Spring. There were many reasons for their recommendation, but the main reason was: it’s so fun.
The Magic Hot Springs spans 80,000 square meters, with breathtaking views of the sea on its north shore. It integrates a boutique hot spring and interactive water park with a magical element. Through landscape design and the integration of advanced technologies like sound, light, and cinema, the spa blends movement and stillness, technology, and technology. While enjoying the hot springs, spa treatments, and water park, you can immerse yourself in the magical atmosphere.
The Magic Hot Springs is divided into two parts: indoor and outdoor. Indoors, there is a large children's water playground, as well as attractions such as a big trumpet, a sky-high slide, a flying slide, a wave pool, and cool magic shows.
Outdoors, there are artificial waves, a rafting track, a swing carousel, a water spinning cup, a combination slide and other entertainment projects that can be played for an unlimited time. There is also a large open-air swimming pool and various small pavilions for rest.
The hot springs are divided into original soup, fruit pool, five-character soup, Chinese medicine pool, etc., which can meet the various needs of different people. The hot spring area is full of trees, green and has a strong sense of design.
Tips:
About Yingkou Bayuquan Magic Hot Spring Park:
Business hours: Monday to Thursday: 9:30-19:30 Friday to Sunday: 09:30-20:00
Catering: Magic Hot Spring has a wide variety of delicious food, with hamburgers and sausages on the first floor, a buffet on the second floor, and a food court on the third floor. It’s up to you to choose your budget.
Address: No. 9, Jinshatan Street, Western Coastal Tourism Zone, Bayuquan District, Yingkou City
Self-driving navigation location: Magic Hot Spring Park parking lot
Shanhai Square, located on the western coastal tourism belt of the Yingkou Development Zone, is a hidden gem of a seaside destination, offering sparse crowds and breathtaking scenery. The Crescent Bay Bathing Beach, the pier, the Bayan Princess sculpture, the Bohai Pearl Observation Deck, and the underwater sculptures of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals are all iconic landmarks.
There are also amusement projects like speedboats and rainbow slides on the beach. If you bring children, digging in the sand and playing in the waves is also very beautiful. If you happen to catch low tide, digging clams, fishing for razor clams, and going to the sea is really fun.
In addition, Shanhai Square is also an excellent place to watch the sunset. When the weather is good, the sky is filled with red clouds and the beach is reflected, which is absolutely amazing.
If time permits, be sure to leave more time for Shanhai Square, from sunrise to sunset, and enjoy the different beauty of mountains and seas as time passes.
When you are visiting Shanhai Square, you can choose to stay at the Bayuquan Beach Cabins. There are 34 unique cabins with more than 40 guest rooms of different sizes. The exterior is fresh and unique, and the interior is elegant and stylish, with various decorations that are unique.
Through the window of the room, you can see the beautiful sea view where the sea and sky merge into one. Walking out of the balcony, you can enjoy a piece of beach to yourself, walk on the waves, feel the breeze, catch some seafood, take pictures, and encounter a romantic beach experience.
At night, you can set off fireworks on the beach, look at the starry sky, and fall asleep with the waves as your pillow. Even your dreams will seem especially sweet.
The history of Xiongyue Botanical Garden can be traced back to 1915. It is also one of the earliest and oldest botanical gardens in my country.
The entire Xiongyue Botanical Garden consists of two parts: the initial garden and the new garden, with a total area of 270,167 square meters. It is divided into four parts: water landscape area, plant viewing area, fruit picking area, and ecological catering area.
The botanical gardens are filled with a variety of trees, tall and short, near and far, each with its own unique shape and fragrance. Birdsong fills the woods, creating a peaceful, tranquil, and relaxing stroll.
The Xiongyue Botanical Garden now also has an animal area with lambs, ponies, peacocks, rabbits, and deer that are not kept in captivity, etc., which can be approached up close and even fed.
As a small city in the north, Yingkou is nestled between mountains and the sea. With the convenience of navigation and the connection between mountains and water, it is rich in products and has a wide range of delicacies from land and sea. The word "fresh" on the table in Yingkou is just like the city itself, which is open to all and inclusive. It combines the best of all places and has its own characteristics. Their cuisine is unique and is called: Yingcai.
If you want to eat authentic Yingkou cuisine in Yingkou, you can find it on ordinary streets. If you want to have a rich, complete and exquisite one-stop meal, the Xinhongyun Restaurant, which has a century-old history and specializes in Yingkou local cuisine, is a place you cannot miss.
Gaizhou line edge, mixed jellyfish, bighead carp ball soup, pineapple leaf cake, clam meat stewed with eggplant, wild rice stem mixed with pig ears, golden garlic and plum beans mixed with seafood, salted shrimps, fresh sea hare mixed with shredded green onions, hairy clam meat mixed with green bamboo shoots, home-cooked bighead carp middle section, river crab tofu pudding, fried shrimp slices, traditional fried meat... a full table.
The most impressive dish is the seafood stew. Using the Northeastern stewing method to cook seafood may seem simple and crude, but the food on the table retains the original flavor of the seafood and makes the seafood more mellow on the tongue, which is truly a test of the chef's skills.
