Guangxi, China -

here is a sleepiness to Beihai, a sense of a place forgotten, that gives the visitor an all too rare sense of genuine discovery. Perched on a bay off the Gulf of Tonkin, subtropical Beihai sells itself as a beach town. Lovely Silver Beach is a great reason to visit, but the real charm of this town on the southeastern tip of Guangxi lies in its historic soul.

Although Pakhoi (as it was then known) was only a treaty port from 1877 to 1904, traces of its past are liberally scattered throughout the town centre. Century-old avenues of trees stretch their leafy canopies over wide boulevards, and the neoclassical architecture of the old foreign consulates and churches – now used as schools and guesthouses – gives away their original identities. Most poignant of all, more than half a century after the last foreigners left, a strong, generations-old Catholicism lives on in churches, chapels and a population of the faithful.

Beihai is best seen on foot, with the occasional trishaw or taxi to take you to more distant points. Walking around town reveals a city that is still some years away from the wealth and pace of China's buzzing urban centres. In Beihai, motorcycles and trishaws, not cars, are the main form of transport, and a big-ticket purchase is a television, not an apartment. But Beihai is determined to catch up – 2005 was 'the year of construction' – and modern malls and waterfront apartment buildings now dot the landscape. Still, the shadows of another age peep through: a decaying old church; narrow lanes lined with European-style houses.

'Old Street' (officially known as Zhongshan Lu) stands near the waterfront, a stretch of narrow 19th and early 20th-century shophouses with western facades and Chinese roof tiles where the early traders conducted business downstairs and lived upstairs. Some still do, while others are entirely family dwellings, portraits of Mao adorning the living rooms and televisions tuned to the latest variety shows.

The old consulates and churches are clustered in the centre of town, a short ride away by sanlunche (trishaw). On the grounds of the People's Hospital stands the beautiful Anglican bishop's house, now empty, and a series of mission buildings: the Anglican girls' school, Anglican worker's building, and a mysterious tower, perhaps the bell tower to a long-gone church.

The freshly painted former British Consulate sits empty on the grounds of the Beihai No 1 Middle School, with wooden louvered windows and a sentry of royal palms in the front. Just next door, a new Catholic church shares the grounds of the old seminary building, where Jesuits once trained their young recruits. Known as Hong Lou (Red Mansion), the seminary was built in 1935, and locals say it was the largest and most beautiful building in Beihai – a testament to the influence of the church. A short walk away is the decaying Beihai Catholic church, built in 1918 and soon to be renovated by the government. In the meantime, the church's worn pews have been moved into a makeshift chapel next door, where mass is celebrated daily for the faithful – who include a group of retired nuns (the oldest is 97).

The tourists from the big cities don't come for the history, though. They come for Silver Beach, a 24-kilometre stretch of fine white sand and clear water that is Beihai's main attraction along with seafood restaurants right on the water, and the inevitable shell and pearl souvenirs sold by sun-browned Zhuang minority women. It's a fun diversion – but it can't compare to the thrill of trawling for old Pakhoi.