Beihai (Chinese: 北海) (formerly Pakhoi) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi, People's Republic of China. The name of the city means "north of the sea" in Chinese, signifying its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin, which has granted it historical importance as a port of international trade for Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Between the years 2006 and 2020, Beihai is predicted to be the world's fastest growing city. Beihai has a large shipyard, but most of the money generated in the city is derived from trade.

The dialect spoken throughout Beihai is "Baihua" a Cantonese dialect; Mandarin is not often used or spoken by the population, though it is the official language used in government, business and post-elementary-level education throughout mainland China.

It governs the small islands of Weizhou and Xieyang, and is directly north of Hainan Island.

Beihai contains three districts and one county, which are subdivided into five urban sub-districts, 23 towns, 3 townships, 87 neighborhood committees, 343 village committees. (see also Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China#Levels)

Oliver Shanti (Born Ulrich Schulz 16 November 1948 in Hamburg), also known as Oliver Serano-Alve, is a New Age musician. Founder of the band Inkarnation which was originally based on meditative music, and later transformed into "Oliver Shanti & Friends". Because of Oliver's unavailability, the rest of the group is continuing with multi-instrumentalist Margot Reisinger (formerly known as Margot Vogl and Margot Shanti), a member of the original staff, as "Existence".

In 2002, a warrant for his arrest was issued in Germany, with a €3000 reward offered, on suspicion of his having committed child sexual abuse. Shanti went missing at that time, and was reported to be living secretly in Germany or its adjacent countries. He was arrested in Lisbon, Portugal, on 29 June 2008, and charged with 314 cases of child abuse on 20 April 2009. After having attempted suicide during his pre-trial custody, "Oliver Shanti" was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison on Friday, December 4, 2009 - after a Munich court convicted him of 76 counts of child sexual abuse.