Friday, December 2, 2011

Nude Beach Day



I went to my first ever nude beach, in Hong Kong of all places. Hong Kong isn’t exactly known as a nudist’s paradise. I’ve seen a lot of naked children at park fountains and pretty much wherever there’s open water – especially in the oppressive heat of summer – but this isn’t a place you’ll ever see naked adults. Even at a regular beach, most people cover up as much as they can. I’ve never seen anyone sunbathing, clothed or otherwise, in any park. Most of the women seem to do everything they can to keep the sun away. They even use umbrellas on sunny days. I’ve been told it’s because people with tans work outdoors, and those who work outdoors must be poor. Rich people can avoid the sun. People go out of their way to be as white as possible around here.

It’s December, but not cold at all. It’s a lot cooler than it was a couple of months ago, but this winter is nothing like winters in Minnesota. I see locals walking around in the daytime with big coats, hats and scarves, but I’ve never been cold enough for more than a light sweater – and that’s at night. So when Ryan suggested going to the beach in December, it didn’t seem strange to me at all. What he didn’t tell me was that it was a nude beach.

There are beaches all over Hong Kong. Most of them are mostly empty even in the summer. I don’t think the Chinese are big fans of the beach. There’s a small beach near the house in Clear Water Bay where Lily & Kevin stayed in July. I never saw anybody else there. I haven’t been to every beach in Hong Kong – there are actually more than I would expect – but I’ve never been to any that were crowded.

This particular nude beach was on Lantau Island and very hard to get to. We work on Lantau, but this was on the other end of the island, nowhere near the MTR. I don’t think any buses even go out that far. Ryan borrowed a car from one of his band friends who probably “borrowed” it from someone else. They’re a questionable bunch. We drove out there with a hand drawn map that really wasn’t all that helpful. We probably would’ve had better luck with Mapquest.

We drove around for a long time and got lost a few times before we stopped in a tiny little village to ask for directions. I know more Chinese than Ryan, but still not enough to have a conversation with anyone. I know north, south, east and west in Chinese, but that didn’t matter since none of the locals seemed to know which way anything was oriented, ironically. They gave directions as left and right rather than north and south. They didn’t understand our map at all, but they understood the few Chinese words written on it and told us to go down the road where they pointed. It quickly became the only road, and at that point our only options were to turn around and go back or keep going. I was ready to give up, but Ryan wanted to soldier on. He thought the road either had to lead somewhere or just stop dead. I pointed out that Lantau is an island. The road could go in an endless circle.

Not long after the tiny village, we were at a makeshift dirt parking lot. Ryan decided this was it. He’d never been here before, but his friend who drew the map said there was a dirt parking lot. Normally that wouldn’t be specific enough for me, but in Hong Kong, any kind of parking lot with available space is rare enough to beat the odds. It turns out they were right. A quick hike from the fake parking lot and we were at a beautiful little beach. There was no one in sight, so it’s hard to say if this was really the nude beach, but I would be surprised to see a single person on a beach in December.

Ryan was disappointed that no one was there. I think he wanted to go to the nude beach to look at naked girls just as much as he wanted to get naked, but if you want to see naked girls on the beach, don’t go to Hong Kong. I was glad there was no one else there. I brought a bathing suit and wasn’t about to get naked if there was anyone around.

Ryan says I need to get over my prudish upbringing and be more comfortable with my body and the human body is beautiful and blah, blah, blah. He’s right. I’d like to be more comfortable with nudity. I went to a great spa on my birthday and my discomfort took something away from the experience. It was great, but it would have been better if I was more relaxed. The ladies there were not trying to hurt me at all. They only wanted to pamper me.

I also know that the trip to the nude beach wasn’t just so I can gain confidence. Ryan wanted to look at naked girls.

The water was too cold for a swim. I’m never very confident about water quality here anyway. They have a system that tells you if the water’s ok that day, but that just makes me wonder. I’d rather swim where the water never has hazardous days.

Ryan got naked right away. He loved running around with everything hanging out. I stayed in my bathing suit for a while. Eventually, I took off my top. There was absolutely no one around and no hint that there ever would be, so I went full monty. It felt nice feeling the sun all over my body, even if it wasn’t a warm summer day. December is not especially cold here, but I think the beach would be better pretty much any other time of the year. It felt nice, but it’s not something I’ll be doing on a regular basis. I’d like to get to the point where I’m comfortable enough to do it with other people around, but we really don’t do much beachgoing in Hong Kong and this beach was a pain in the butt to find. They say it’s supposed to get colder in the next few weeks, so this was probably our last beach trip this year.

22 comments:

  1. From your description, I'm wondering if this is the beach shown in the picture at the top of my blog?

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  2. I always like isolated and secluded places, just you and nobody else wow. I hope you like it just as much as i do!
    cheers
    Forever alone

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  3. I'd actually rather be around other people. I can only handle so much time alome.

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  4. Do you still have the directions or name of the beach?

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  5. I never knew the name of it. The directions are pretty complicated. I'm sure there's an easier way to get there, but I don't know how.

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  6. You are very brave. I am a nudist but it is unease for me to bare it all anywhere in Hong Kong, no matter how remote it appears to be. Many times there are people popping out from nowhere, or armed themselves with cameras that can zoom from miles away. The culture there that is not very tolerant to naturism.

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  7. Ryan must be happy to atleast see one naturist there LOL

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  8. I must admit it, I came across this blog first. Not to be uncouth or anything, but it does say it's your most popular post on the right :)

    That's incredible to have found a nude beach in Hong Kong. I have only ever skinny-dipped (at night) in China, which is fun but an officially approved place would be nice.

    How did he hear about it? Sure it wasn't just an empty beach where there's nobody to care if you are nude?

    Thanks so much for writing and sharing

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  9. They use a program to decide which posts are listed. I don't have anything to do with it. I'm not surprised this one's at the top of the list, but I love the fact that #2 is Mel Tormé and Judy Garland.

    This is definitely a nude beach, but it's not at all official. It's technically illegal, but a lot of people know about it. As far as I know, the police don't care.

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  10. Ha yeah, Judy Garland would deserve to be #1 but that's just how it goes sometimes!

    I would so very much like to visit this beach one day. But looks like I would need help to find it... ;P

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  11. It's pretty easy. Just drive down to 7-11, turn left at Family Mart, right at 7-11, another left at Circle K, when you see 7-11, stay on the left until 7-11, then turn at the fork in the road at 7-11.

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    1. ����

      that's an inside joke, right???
      that's HK in a nutshell!!!

      Left at watsons, right at 7-11, right at Bonjour...left at....

      Me and my girl were running around naked at the beach we camped on, in new territories.
      I won't name it, but it was at night. there were a few other camping groups, but it was dark, and nobody noticed or cared-except maybe the fishermen...

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  12. It's almost certainly Kau Ling Chung beach. One beach east of Fan Lau beach on southwest Lantau. Very remote; there is a campsite there but it's rarely used. We go naked there all the time.

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  13. It could be. That's as good a guess as any.

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  14. Are you still living in hong kong. Is there any active group for bloggers are there.

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  15. Yes, I live in Hong Kong, but no, I don't know anything about bloggers here. I think blogs are mostly dead these days. Isn't everything on Facebook instead?

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  16. I tried to find nudist beach or nudist comunity here in Hongkong for 7 years. No luck so far . I will try to find this one .

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  17. I can't tell you anything about any nudist communities in Hong Kong, but I know there are several unofficial nude beaches. Officially, they are all illegal. Whatever you do, don't try to sunbathe naked in Victoria Park.

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  18. I also thought it would be kau ling chung but I don't think there is a parking lot nearer to that beach. So I assume it is just somewhere near the lower cheung sha beach? btw, I have done that a couples of time (including skinny dipping) and I believe it is safe to swim in the water along HK Island, Lantau and Sai Kung. Not sure about Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun.

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  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    Replies
    1. While this was a nice comment, it was removed because it contained private information that the poster might not have realized would be public.

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