From Beijing to Tangshan, spending the New Year in a quiet seaside

The weather on New Year's Day is very cold, the remaining snow has not melted, on the first day of the holiday, seeing the elderly at home who have survived another round of flu season in a stable condition, I started thinking about how to go out and relax for the New Year. Long-distance travel is not considered, the bustling carnival is too different from myself, thinking about finding a quiet seaside place to welcome the first ray of sunlight in the New Year, is more suitable for me now. Picked up my childhood friend, we set off by car, the first stop is Tangshan. Lunch is of course chosen as Tangshan Banquet, here is crowded with people, there are performances and countless small shops, as well as high-end restaurants. We squeezed into a corner of the lobby, listening to the big drum of Leting while eating various snacks picked from here and there. After eating and drinking, we left this place full of worldly fireworks and went to the Catholic Church in Wujiazhuang. Unfortunately, the old building was destroyed in the Tangshan earthquake, the new church is large but not exquisite, and it was not satisfying after watching it. It was still early, so we went on to visit the Qixin Cement Industrial Tourism Area, which is an old factory site established in 1889, once produced the first bag of cement in China, and is one of the iconic enterprises of Tangshan, an industrial city. The dilapidated main building shows the glory of the past, the rusty giant steel monster can imagine the vigor of the past, walking among them, what can be felt is the heavy footsteps of history. Leaving the city, heading straight to the seaside in the east, our destination is the hot spring hotel in Leting. The room booked in advance faces the sea, you can see the sunrise at sea when you open the curtains, and the beach is just two or three hundred meters away. The coast at this time is frozen and motionless, under the setting sun, the ice surface that can't be seen at a glance is silvery white. Walking carefully on the frozen sea, enjoying the surprise that winter brings to me, experiencing the magic of the four seasons. There are residential areas nearby, the seaside is not lonely, at night there are actually people coming to set off fireworks from time to time. We brought our own food, drinking tea and wine, chatting. Watching the beautiful fireworks flicker in the sky, talking about the difficulties of each other in the past year, looking forward to the smoothness of the coming year, inadvertently, 2024 has quietly arrived. On New Year's Day morning, the heavy clouds completely dispelled my plan to watch the sunrise, hiding in the public area on the second floor of the hotel, writing the New Year's plan while calculating where to go on the way back to Beijing. Take the Qinbin Expressway to the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Expressway to go home, near Beijing, get off the expressway to go to the Catholic Church in Xiaohan Village, Wuqing District, Tianjin. The church, which contrasts sharply with the low houses in the village, stands out among the crowd, and can be seen from the high-speed rail from Beijing to Tianjin, it is said that its height is also ranked in the top few in Asia. Because it is located in a remote and unknown place, we were able to see its beauty by mistake, and after learning about its history, we were even more satisfied, which was an unexpected surprise on the New Year's Day trip.