faysrooms: Annual QiangTang Tidal Wave Observation Festival in YanGuan/ HaiNing, Zhejiang

Last Thursday (9/27) my new friend Max called and asked me if I wanted to go see the tidal wave of QiangTang River 钱塘江, which is the biggest every year around August 18 of the lunar calendar. This tidal phenomenon is something so famous that ordinary people and emperors alike from different dynasties have come to watch in the last 200o years. In the ancient times, the waves can get as tall as 10 meters; these tall waves are created when water rushes into the narrow, shallow QianTang River from the sea during high tide while water from the river is trying to flow out. There a 2 cycles everyday, so you can see a day tide and a night tide. In the Song Dynasty, expert swimmers, or "surfers" used to swim in the high tides while carrying bright colored flags, and whoever can keep his flag dry is the winner of the competition. In the modern days, the tides are smaller at around 1-2 meters, due to the construction along the river. There are only 2 places in the world where you can see such big tidal waves -- the other one is at the Amazon River.

Back to our trip -- we took the 4:25pm train, which turned out to be a slow "express" train that took almost 3 hours to get to HaiNing 海宁. We sat in the hard seat section and chatted with people who live in HaiNing to find out more about the tide. Max brought his sleeping bag as he was planning to sleep on the river banks, while me and my 2 other guests decided to stay at the hotel in HaiNing because we're too old to hack it. We stayed at the 3-star hotel (~$200) right next to the train station, only to find out that there's a brand new GreenTree Hotel one block up for only slightly more. Haining is a well-known area for buying leather and fur, but we had to pass on that given the summer-like weather. We went around HaiNing looking for a place to eat in tricycles, and ended up eating at a claypot place. Also bought some famous JiaXing "WuFangZhai" zongzi 五芳斋粽子 (steamed sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves with meat or sweet filling). After dinner, we waited until almost 11pm and headed out to YanGuan 盐官, where you can see/hear the night tide. The taxi ride was about $60 going but $90 coming back because of the late night trip premium. The admission for the night tide was $20, while the day tide was $50. There were some outdoor teashops with tables lining the river bank. We walked further down to where it's darker and more quiet. We waited for almost 2 hours, enjoying the moist breeze. The full moon hung alone in the clear sky. At around 12:30, the tide finally came. For a few minutes, all you can hear is the noise that the tide was making. Then under the moonlight, we saw the thin white line of waves rushing before us. The waves were nearly lined up but didn't look very tall because the river bank was much higher up. Still, everyone was very excited and tried to videotape or take pictures. Right after the waves passed, people started leaving the area. We lingered a bit, bidded Max goodbye and headed back to HaiNing. The next day, me and my 2 guests hung out in HaiNing until almost noon before heading back to YanGuan (it was getting really hot). When we got there, the road to the observation area was blocked further up so we had to walk a bit. Within 20 minutes of us getting, the waves came. This time we were able to see the waves more clearly. It seemed smaller than the night tide. We all thought that the night tide was way better. We then took a taxi back to HaiNing where we boarded the real express train that brought us back to Shanghai in less than an hour. We were gone for almost exactly 24 hours -- what a trip!

Diagram showing the tide track