Pingtan 2.0

Anja
Dec 9, 2022
6 min read

After we had to leave Changchun in such a hurry, we were able to rest a bit on Pingtan. Surely this was also due to the fact that we arrived before our kitematerial, which was on the road longer than we. And Denny was still working from his home office on the island.

By the way, traveling at short notice is the non plus ultra here in China. The flights become cheaper and cheaper up to 3 days before departure, instead of more and more expensive like in our country. But then you should not book very close, then the price goes up again. So much for the excursus "Travel in China".

So the first days were arriving, exploring our place, home office, morning walks to the harbor, relaxing and getting to know all the residents in our hotel. Especially those with 4 paws.

As soon as our kite stuff was there, so was the wind. Very convenient. How we looked forward to this time. Wind, sunshine, beach. This is what we have been waiting and working towards all year. My list of what I wanted to learn at the kite was about as long as I am tall.

For me, the euphoria was unfortunately very short. Directly on the second kite day I landed badly and my knee got damaged. The knee has become thick and running, jumping and surfing was not possible for the time being. But I didn't go to the doctor. He would only have told me to keep my feet still. In the long-awaited vacation not exactly what you want to hear. If Denny had been hit last year, it was my turn this year.

But we still had a great time. As soon as it was possible again, I hobbled with Denny to the beach, we climbed mountains, went for walks by the sea, explored new corners of the island and of course I regularly tried to get back on the board. But it didn't go quite as fast as I would have liked. I had to take a break for 14 days and wait until my knee had returned to normal shape.

Then I started kiting again on butter flat water. Every day 10-20 minutes. At the end of the vacation were even again a few gentle hops possible. We had enough time. So much even that we only went to the beach at the best time, 2 hours before to 1 hour after high tide. In Pingtan in general, and especially on our favorite beach, there is a very big difference between low and high tide. At low tide you have to walk very very very far to get to the water, at high tide a small lagoon forms.

Actually, there would have been a kitesurfing competition during that time. Denny, I and two other internationals had also signed up for it. There was also a little bit to win. But most of all we wanted to have the competition shirt. Unfortunately the event was cancelled at short notice. But I probably couldn't have participated either, my knee wasn't healed yet. But we got the T-shirts anyway.

What else did we do? In total, we were on Pingtan for five weeks.

Above all, we enjoyed the "no-testing" very much. In whole China the number of cases increased again, only on Pingtan everything was calm. We only went testing again when the vacation was coming to an end.

Delicious BBQ's with new and old friends, relaxed evenings on our hotel terrace and extremely interesting food truck adventures on the beach.

The best way to get to a few corners on the island is to rent a small electric scooter. The devices are located on almost every corner and you can activate them for a few RMB via your cell phone. Maximum speed is about 25km/h.

On a no-wind day, the racers are a lot of fun, as you generate your own wind.

We explored a small village in the north of the island. Situated directly on the mountainside with a view of a bay, small winding roads where no car comes through, rustic grown trees with red lantern decorations and a monastery. but we have not visited. we did not want to disturb.

Mostly we were at Golden Beach, the big beach in the north of the island. With north-east it is simply the most beautiful there. And if you carry all your kite gear a little further than just 200m away from the road, then you also have your peace there and people do not run over your lines. Many are just curious, but unfortunately can rarely understand that we react a little nervously when they hold their cigarettes over our material or race with their cars at lightning speed over the beach.

By the way, these geometric lines or patterns are made by shell collectors. As soon as the water recedes, they come to the beach, bring their "sand plow" and walk up and down the beach for hours, sifting the sand.

But not only the shell collectors dig pictures in the sand here. Like in Egypt, there are sand digger crabs. Most of the time you only see the rolled pellets or scratch marks in the sand, because the little creatures are so insanely fast. Even if you squat in front of such a hole and wait, the chance of the crab peeking out of its house is rather small.

We already tried to get to Elphant Nose Beach last year. This year we started a second attempt. The official access road was unfortunately again (or still?) closed off by an official in the shack and barrier.

So we snuck up from behind and drove by car over a kind of fishing pond access road as far as we could get to our destination. The rest of the way we had to walk. But it was worth it.

Pure Caribbean feeling:

When there is south wind, most kiters can be found at the Wandi - or in professional circles also called LV Beach. Last year we had no south wind, but this year there were a few days. The beach is relatively small, almost too small, for the increased number of kite surfers compared to last year. Especially since the beach is also divided by a river. Depending on the tide, you have to swim through the " stream" with your equipment.

If you want to escape the crowds, you go to the south. There we had the beach almost all to ourselves. we had to share our private beach only with a herd of goats.

The beaches in or near the city were always too packed and crowded for us. In addition, most beginners were trained there and they also need their peace to learn. We don't have to cruise around in between.

On our tours over the island we have seen again some interesting, funny, special and thought-provoking things:

Dried fish snacks for the small hunger in between, mini cars that fit in really every parking space, mopeds loaded to overload, buried submarines, trucks that are so rusted that they should actually already fall apart, graves that were built wildly in the landscape, bathtubs in public, karaoke in the cab and of course, garbage, garbage garbage.

Every wave washes up small styrofoam balls, flotsam, wood being the most harmless here, is only cleared away on the official beaches by collection teams, the smaller beaches have their own collectors. However, here also only what they need is collected. Particularly popular here are plastic bottles and plastic strings...

Our 5 weeks of vacation were slowly coming to an end. But what I still wanted to do: Go to the place where Denny fell into the dock last year. I was so scared that it still feels like yesterday. And so that you can get an idea of it, I am 1.66m tall.