New | It's decision time by the sea for China's Communist Party

In theory, the most important political event of the year in China is the annual plenary session of the ruling Communist Party's top decision-making Central Committee in Beijing in the autumn.

But, in practice, the biggest policy decisions of the year are made in the summer at an informal summit, held in the popular beach resort of Beidaihe .

This meeting in Hebei province, also known as the "informal summit", will decide what leaders will officially approve when they gather at a hotel in the capital a few months later.

The Beidaihe meeting usually convenes during the dog days of August, while the party plenum kicks off in the cooler period between October and November.

The secretive seaside conclave gained pre-eminence in policy making because the decisions made there have often reflected the consensus within the party between its leaders and the party elders who also invited to attend such its informal closed-door discussions.

In the decades since it became the party's summer political centre in 1954, the most famous event to occur at Beidaihe was chairman Mao Zedong's decision in 1958 to shell Quemoy island, the closest Kuomintang outpost to the mainland.