I grew up in Dalian, and when I was a child, my favorite place was Xinghai Park. Xinghai Park is located in the southwest of Xinghai Bay, adjacent to Lushun South Road. Xinghai Park was also known as Xinghai Four Stations at that time, and the current No. 202 tram also had at that time, starting from Shahekou Railway Station, passing through Liberation Square and Fuguo Street, there were Xinghai One, Two, Three, Xinghai Park (four stations) to Black Rock Reef as the end. The first to third stations of Xinghai are marine farms, and the tidal flats in this area are used for seafood farming, and there are no people on the shore, only the houses of the farms and the barbed wire fences that prevent people from entering and leaving. Xinghai 3rd Station is adjacent to Xinghai Park and is bounded by the East Hill in Xinghai Park. Buses also stop at Xinghai Park via Lushun South Road, but its destinations are Lingshui Bridge, Xiaoping Island and Lushun.
Xinghai Park has two entrances and exits, the west entrance is the main entrance of the park, and the east entrance is the side entrance of the park, facing the east hill of Xinghai Park. Later, after Xinghai Park was connected to Xinghai Square, Xinghai Park became part of the Xinghai Bay Scenic Area.
Founded in 1909, Xinghai Park is the oldest large-scale seaside park in Dalian, and in the 1950s and 1960s it was a favorite "summer paradise" for Dalian people, known as "the place to take a bath in the sea." "Every summer, there are so many people in Xinghai Park, so many that they can collide with each other in the water. At that time, Dalian people went to Xinghai Park mainly to cool off and take a bath.
The land area of Xinghai Park is a garden, and the small hillside outside the park is a high-end villa area, and there are many purple cherry trees in the villa area. This villa area is all small Western-style buildings, there are about twenty buildings, all of which are people with identities living here, and some of the people's liberation army soldiers who are guarding the doors of the villas. At that time, the leading cadres and the masses of the people were very close, and there was no wall in the villa area, and people could cross the villa area at will.
Entering from the west gate of Xinghai Park, there are cobbled corridors, some leading to the sea cave of Xiaodongshan, the sea pavilion and stone landscape of Xiaodong Mountain. Some yongdao lead to the bathing beach, and the yongdao stops at the steps, and the steps down are soft yellow sand. After the passage on the shore leads to a large house, it becomes a stone road and a cement road, which passes in front of the large shed house and leads to the west hill adjacent to the black rock reef. Below the west end of the hill is a cliff facing the sea, and beyond this hill is the sea of black rock reefs, where people catch the sea.
From Yongdao to the top of The East Hill, there is a downward "Exploring the Sea Cave", and there are three eye-catching characters of "Exploring the Sea Cave" on the top of the cave. After entering from the top of the mountain, it winds down the stone steps inside the cave, which are very slippery and require careful descent. After descending one or twenty meters inside the cave, you can see the vast sea outside the cave entrance. As soon as the person came out of the hole, his eyes suddenly opened up, and a blue sea suddenly appeared in front of him. The waves rush to the mouth of the cave and the cliffs on both sides, and when the waves hit the cliffs, they will burst out silver splashes, spread out in the air and fall into the sea, and suddenly disappear, and tourists seem to have entered a fairyland. Between the cliffs on both sides of the cave forms a small beach, all made up of large and small pebbles, which are very clean and smooth. The waves rush to the small cave mouth beach, the waves hit the rocky beach, disappear in an instant, and the trickle runs back to the sea. The small beach under the cave is elegant and quiet, and although tourists come down from time to time, not many people are really willing to enjoy the sea view here. Looking east from the front of the cave, the farms in the area of Xinghai Sanzhan look desolate. There is nothing to be seen on the beach of the marine farm, and the beach looks very desolate under the background of the seawater, but the soil under the beach is rich in seafood.
At low tide, people can go to the beach to watch the sea, and at high tide, the sea water can be poured into the cave, and people can't get off the beach. The cave is now gone, and it is said that it is overcrowded and tourists have to queue up to enter the cave. In the summer, the cave is cool, and many people enter the cave to escape the heat, but the space inside the cave is limited, and tourists are often congested here. Others defecate here. For safety and hygiene, the park management department buried the sea cave, resulting in the loss of Xinghai Park, a site that has been passed down for many years. At present, only the older generation still has memories of the sea cave. After hearing about this, I feel very sorry.
There is a strangely shaped boulder in the water of star bay, which is said to be the ancient time when the platinum star helped the gargi and the mullet to fight against the blue shark spirit, and took off the stars in the sky and fell into the sea when they smashed the blue shark spirit. People thought that this strange stone was from the sky outside the "Star Stone", "Star Bay" and later and Xinghai Park got its name.
In the 1960s, in the land park of Xinghai Park, trees and flowers and trees presented a lush scene, and various flowers and trees decorated the land area of Xinghai Park very beautifully, and there were not many artificially carved features, full of natural atmosphere, which looked very eye-catching. In the spring and summer, people walk in the garden and can pick cherries on both sides of the road at will. When the flowers are in full bloom, some little girls will run to the flowers and smell the flowers. However, more people will walk down the road to the beach, take off their clothes and put them on the beach, and run to the sea in their swimsuits or swim trunks. Xinghai Park Bathing Area was one of the four major bathing beaches in Dalian and the largest beach at that time. At that time, there were shed-style rest areas on the shore, and the service facilities were only fresh water baths and rental of swimming clothes, service places to watch over clothes, and carts selling popsicles and sodas, unlike now, where commercial institutions are everywhere to lure people to spend money.
At that time, the beach in Xinghai Park was relatively simple, and there was a red cloth cable between the shallow water area and the deep water area, warning people not to easily cross the cordon. For those who have good water quality and dare to swim across the boundary, the lifeboats of the bathing beach will wait in the distance, and once they find someone in distress, they will rush to save people at the first time.
If we come here to take a bath at low tide, everyone will take off their clothes on the shore and put them together, and then they will wear their swimming trunks and go into the water. At low tide, the beach on the shore can be exposed to a width of 100 to 200 meters. The yellow sand with the wrinkles left by the receding sea, barefoot on it, soft, cool, very comfortable. Occasionally on the beach, you can see small crabs crawling fast, and the small crabs are walking sideways, their bodies are blue, and they run very fast. Some children will lie on the beach and pile up hills with wet sand, and some children will put one hand under the sand pile, and the other hand will shoot the sand hard, and then pull out the hand below, and then expand the sand hole little by little. Until the roof of the cave collapses due to the pressure from above, the children will let out a burst of cheerful laughter. The kids we went to swim in the water, didn't stop at the beach, but ran into the water. When we run into the water, we know that the water in the bath is very shallow after low tide, and we need to walk a long way in the water to reach the waist-length or chest-length depth, then we will swim in the water.
If you come to take a bath at high tide, the beach under the stone steps is submerged in the sea, and the waves follow the waves to the seawall, and the blow on the breakwater will splash countless splashes. Splashes of water splashed in the air and scattered in the sea, and under the reflection of the sun, countless silver rays shone. At high tide, the surface of the sea below the breakwater floats with weeds, dead leaves, broken-rooted kelp and nori, all of which the waves bring from elsewhere. After the high tide, the water under the breakwater is almost chest-deep, and we would pile our clothes on the breakwater, jump directly into the water, and then chase each other and hit each other.
After swimming more than two hundred meters in the direction of the deep sea, there is a rope that is blocked on the water in an east-west direction, and a red cloth strip is tied every few meters, which is very eye-catching. This is the dividing line between deep and shallow water, and people are not allowed to cross the line easily in the park. Once someone crosses the line, there will be security personnel shouting on the lifeboat in the distance, and the loudspeaker on the shore will also remind the cross-border swimmers to hurry back. So we would race against each other in this boundary in the direction of Black Rock Reef. From the bottom of the east hill to the west hill, it is almost 2 or 3 kilometers, and we usually only swim half the distance to go back. Because most people's stomachs are not full, it is difficult to have the physical strength to swim as long distances.
One day, I saw the lifeboat close to me and had the idea of mischief. When I saw my friends swimming far, I suddenly flew to the surface of the water, and then fell down again, and my two hands deliberately stretched out of the sea and shook in a struggling motion. At first I did this without anyone noticing, but when I did this in a row, it attracted the attention of the lifeboat, which was driving the lifeboat to me at a high speed, and several people swimming in the distance swam towards me, and the little friends were desperately rushing back. When the lifeboat came to me, I made a splash in the water, pedaled the water with both feet, and swam rapidly toward the shore. That's when people realized that I was joking with them. When I returned to the shore, a staff member criticized me and said, "Little student, don't make such jokes in the future." You know, the story of 'the wolf is coming' is that the children lie and joke, and in the end people don't believe her and are eaten by the wolf. ”
Since then, I've been swimming here and I've stopped making jokes.
Star Bay Beach is flat, the water flow is slow and the water depth is moderate. Every summer, tourists flock to the city. The reason why Star Bay is named after a star is related to a beautiful legend.
Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a small seaside villa on the shore of the bay, with beautiful mountains and rivers on the shore, lush flowers and trees, and pleasant scenery. The people of the fishing village have lived on fishing nets for generations, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, living a quiet and peaceful life. In the seas of this area, there is a mullet king and a fish king who lead their people who live in the water in the fishing village, who go to the distance to fish or fish, never fishing the mullet kingdom and the gaji fish kingdom in the offshore water tribe, the mullet kingdom and the gaji fish kingdom live in harmony with the people in the fishing village.
Who knows, there are unexpected storms in the sky. One summer, a blue shark spirit wandering overseas led a swarm of sharks to the bay. When the blue shark spirit saw the picturesque scenery and abundant aquatic products, it tried to occupy this beautiful bay. The blue shark spirit leads the shark to harm tourists, sneaking up on the mullet and gagi fish, and making a mess of the bay. The Mullet King and the Gagi Fish King led the crowd to resist, and the ink spit out by the mullets blackened the reef in the bay, still unable to resist the rampant attack of the blue shark spirit and the shark swarm. Under the leadership of the two fish kings, the mullet and the gagi face the desperate resistance of the blue shark spirit and the shark swarm, which suddenly alarms the Taibai Venus. Taibai Venus saw the battle scene in the bay and decided to help the invaded side. He summoned large and small star stones from the sky and threw them into the bay. One of the largest star stones smashed right on the head of the Blue Shark Spirit and smashed it into the bottom of the sea, and peace was restored here. Half of this boulder still stands on the bay, and in order to commemorate this star stone, people call this bay "Star Bay".
In recent years, I have been to Star Bay and Star Sea Park many times to find happy memories of my childhood. However, Xinghai Park is full of commercial institutions, full of commercial advertisements, and the original and happy Xinghai Park has long disappeared, and it can only remain in the memory of our generation.