I'm a minority; boo-hoo

Early the other morning (about six a.m.) I wanted to visit 西子灣 beach. (Some clown insists on calling it Xiziwan; according to the detestable Tongyong pinyin, it should be called Sizihwan, but Wade-Giles Hsitzuwan seems to have stuck.) So I wanted to visit it, but the gatekeeper wouldn't let me in. He said I had to be a "member" (會員) even though he was letting every Taiwanese in (virtually all older types) without checking I.D.'s. In fact, I suspect they're not supposed to be open at all early in the morning; one morning I went last year or earlier, another guy warned me I couldn't stay too long. So much for being a visible minority. Maybe he was just trying to protect me? Anyway, I only wanted to wet my toes, and since I always wonder what the water is contaminated with (bacteria? nuclear waste? stuff dumped overboard by the ships?), I just went over to the breakwater, which is also supposed to be closed, although people ignore the warnings there.

I might have gone to Chi Chin (旗津 Qijin, as as that clown cited above calls it), a tiny part of which was open for swimming (free?) a couple of months ago, but instead I walked back home through the Yancheng district 鹽城區, which seems more derelict every time I go through there. Of course there were few people up; it was early. But there are so many abandoned buildings! For the first time I walked down to the port, which used to be closed, and saw "Fisherman's Wharf" (漁人碼頭), which didn't look like much early in the morning. The area looks like a good one for a night market, but of course they're prohibited there.