The Yalong Bay Centre Plaza sits at the geographic centre of the bay strip, an open paved square dominated by a 27-metre granite totem column carved with motifs from China's mythological cosmology — sun, moon, dragons, the cardinal directions. The column is the bay's set-piece monument, intended as a kind of formal entry to the resort zone.
The plaza is most worth a visit at dusk, when the sea wall is busy with families taking photographs and the lights come up on the column. A small string of shops and restaurants runs along the inland side; the public beach access is straight ahead through the seafront colonnade.