“This is it. This is what we’ve been looking for.” The four-meter-tall Hai Men statue in front of us revealed a side of Beihai that isn’t discussed in the guidebooks. This sleepy Chinese resort has a bright future—but dark secrets as well.

Despite its rich history, including periods of colonial rule and millennia as one of China’s key points of contact with the outside world, Beihai does little to sell itself on its past. Now the main port for the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it’s lapped by the warm waters of the Beibu Gulf (Gulf of Tonkin) and serves more as a beach destination for domestic tourists.

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