Beijingers can enjoy sand and swimming without leaving the city limits. Photo: Li Hao/GT

When the humidity of another Beijing summer day turns unbearable, local swimming pools roil to life as thousands seek to cool off in that rare oasis of water in the landlocked city.

Although tempting, the thought of venturing to a local pool or park is an ominous one, especially if you're hoping to nail some laps in a calm, clean and peaceful environment.

In China, public pools are crowded. Slang terms like "boiling dumplings" have emerged in the local vernacular to describe the way swimmers bob up and down in one spot because they have no room to move.

Many of us have seen those pictures, the ones where you can't see any evidence of pool water because of the sea of black hair and bodies obscuring it.

But China's buoyant economy has meant that rising incomes have created a need for more swimming facilities throughout the capital. As private gyms with pools become the order of the day for affluent locals - including expat swimmers who balk at the thought of sharing water with thousands of splashing dumplings - the majority of Beijingers have no choice but to escape these soaring temperatures at a designated giant water park.

So what is one of these pool parks really like?

Metropolitan took the plunge last week by visiting Beijing's very own Chaoyang Park Ocean Beach Festival, a 20,000-square meter man-made beach with an Olympic-sized swimming pool tucked just inside Chaoyang Park's east gate entrance.

Taking the plunge

If you live in Beijing, there is absolutely no need to think you have to trek for hours to coastal Beidaihe in Hebei Province for a dose of beach and swim. Ocean Beach is smack bang right in the middle of the city.

But of course it is not the only oasis in the capital.  There's Tuanjiehu Water Park near Sanlitun with a small beach and wave pool. Then there is the enormity of a 60,000 square meter water-park called "Crab Island," an unapologetic fake beach off the airport expressway.

In terms of size, Ocean Beach is somewhere in between the two, says Zhang Xu, 22, an onsite volunteer for Ocean Beach's publicity department, as she leads Metropolitan through the security gate. It looks like an airport security check, although a lot more lax.

The uniformed guards - sweaty with untucked shirts - caresses our bags as if feeling fruit for ripeness. Perhaps they are feeling for fruit because fruit is strictly prohibited at the beach. According to the rules, other banned items include alcohol, eggs, deleterious biologic agents and pathogens of infectious disease. The security guards are apparently looking for those as well.

With the all clear we make our way to the resort through a car park. Young yelps of splashing joy increase in volume as we approach the water.

"There are many restrictions on what you can bring into the beach area," Zhang explains as we walk.

"That's why we have security guards at the entrance. We don't let people bring fruit because things like watermelon seeds dirty the sand and water."

For any beach, sand is a precious commodity but for this urban lagoon the quality of the sand is of utmost importance.   

"The sand comes from Hainan Province and is sent back every year to be cleaned," Zhang says surreptitiously, perhaps cautious that she might reveal a trade secret.

Beijing water parks are not as crowded as you might fear. Photos: Li Hao/GT

Fried dumplings

With our feet firmly in the sand, Zhang tours Metropolitan around the area, exposing how a water park like this is run.

Zhang says that during the summer months, the resort expects up to 4,000 people every weekday and swells to about 6,000 people on the weekends. Maximum capacity is a staggering 10,000 people but this only occurs when Beijing is in the throes of an unrelenting heat wave.

"There are fewer people than usual today because of the storm yesterday," Zhang says over her shoulder as we descend the sandy steps to enter the 60,000-square-meter swimming area.

Of the three pools - an Olympic-sized pool, a medium-depth pool and the kid's pool - the kid's pool is almost always the most chaotic, Zhang says. Telling are the gloriously translated signs of caution that speckle the sides of the children's area such as "No Frolic" and "Prohibit Chase."

So far, the only signs of the expected pandemonium are the intermittent shouts from lifeguards admonishing parents to look after their children.

"They [lifeguards] will shout at parents," Zhang says, chuckling as this happens directly in front of us.

Xie Jianfeng, 33, is one parent who seems to be controlling her 7-year-old daughter successfully. She and her husband are from Hebei Province but both work in Beijing.

"We come here mostly for the swimming pool," she says. "I feel the beach area needs more organization for the children to really have fun there."

As Xie's daughter implores her mother to join her underneath the brown mushroom in the kiddie's splash pool, Xie adds that for such a big place, she is surprised at how clean and well staffed the park is.

She appears not to worry about her daughter playing with deleterious biologic agents or even catching pathogens of infectious diseases.

Hard to relax

To Metropolitan's eyes, the only thing close to pandemonium is in the medium pool where people aimlessly bob up and down with their frilly costumes and floating devices. It's pretty chaotic. It would be nigh on impossible to do any laps at leisure, although by the same token that is not the pool's purpose. Unexpectedly, Metropolitan stumbles across the only foreigner on the beach.

Seth Shannon, 33, is from Paris, France, and works as a DJ in Beijing as well in the import-export business. He and his Chinese wife are lying on the sand trying to relax but the compound's overhead speakers keep interrupting them.

"We came here on a weekday to avoid the crazy weekend crowds so that we could have some calm and just try it out," says Shannon, shading his eyes from the sun.

It's Shannon's first time in a Chinese public swimming pool.

"My wife had been persuading me to come every day but I already said no," Shannon says. "Honestly, I'd prefer to go to a real beach on the coast with a real sea."

Shannon points out that there are no lounge chairs, and gestures to the locals who have dug themselves little chairs as holes in the ground. For Shannon, not being allowed to drink alcohol is a bit of a disappointment but as a smoker he is relieved that there is at least a designated smoking area. After all it is China.

"It's just not very fun you know? There are not a lot of things to enjoy," Shannon says. "The pool is OK but it's also pretty dirty. I worry about that."

At that moment the loudspeaker blares an announcement at deafening levels: "Welcome to Ocean Beach Carnival. We warmly remind you to look after your own belongings and wish you a pleasant and safe day."

 Shannon crooks his head in the direction of one of the prison yard loudspeakers.

"And then there's that. Every fifteen minutes there's an announcement," he says.

Back down near the water is another Ocean Beach Festival first timer. Zhao Xing, 31, is a local Beijinger.

"I don't really care about the environment myself as I keep an eye on my son," says Zhao, a financial industry freelancer. Sitting Buddha-like in the sand, Zhao is pleased that his son is happy playing in the sand, although he would never come here on the weekends.

"I specifically picked a weekday to come," Zhao says. "Because if there are too many kids, there isn't enough room to play properly."

The resort has been such a hit with Zhao that he vows to bring the whole family back the following day, including his wife and parents.

Shannon concludes that the whole concept of a beach in the city is "weird" for Chinese living in Beijing.

"They aren't used to this sort of thing," he says. "That's probably why they go a bit too nuts when they get here."

Summertime splashdown options

Three swimming opportunities to check out on sweltering hot days

Ocean Beach Festival

Open daily 9 am - 9:30 pm

Chaoyang Park, No.1 Chaoyanggongyuan Nanlu, Chaoyang district

Tuanjiehu Water Park

Open daily 10 am-10 pm

No.16 Tuanjiehu Nanli, East Third Ring Road, Chaoyang district

Happy Magic Watercube Water Park

Open daily 10 am - 9 pm

No.11 Tianchen Donglu (in the Olympic Village next to Bird's Nest), Chaoyang district

Evelyn Cheng contributed to this story