Beihai

Beihai, in Cantonese called Bakhoi, is a prefecture-level city of Guangxi, China. Beihai means "north sea" in Chinese, meaning that the place is a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin. Between the years 2006 and 2020, Beihai is predicted to be the world's fastest growing city. Beihai has a large shipyard and is reputed to still be a pirate harbour. Beihai is known within China as a travel destination. While Beihai does suffer from pollution as much of China does, it is not nearly as severe as most other parts of the country.

Beihai has a fairly active nightlife also containing western style bars. The dialect spoken throughout Beihai is "Beihua" a Cantonese dialect, although Mandarin is also known, or at least understood, by most of the population (Mandarin is the official language used in government, business and education above elementary level throughout China.)

History
After the 1876 Sino-British Treaty of Yantai, eight Western nations (UK, US, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium) set up embassies, hospitals, churches, schools, and maritime customs. Today, 15 of these western buildings remain in Beihai. It officially became an international tourist spot in 1982.

Geographic coordinates: 108°50′45″ -  109°47′28″ East, 21°29′- 21°55′34″ North. It governs the islands of Weizhou and Xieyang, and is north of Hainan Island.

Tourism
Being an important tourist city of China, Beihai is famous for its beaches (Silver Beach is the most famous), islands, sea food, forests in the sea, coral reefs,sea culture and sea activities etc. It is estimated that there are at least 5 millions tourists flock to Beihai each year.