"We drove to the city to escape the heat, but what we experienced was much more than what we had expected," says the 43-year-old Zhang from Jining, a city in southwestern Shandong.

The Zhangs went fishing at a marine ranch, visited a tea farm, stayed in a seaweed-thatched house and enjoyed watching the starry sky on crystal clear nights.

"My son learned a great deal about sea creatures, and he was impressed by the seaweed house, whose rooftop is piled up with dried seaweed and layered with wheat straw," says Zhang, adding that they stayed one more day than they had planned.