This is the tale of four Americans traveling to the faraway land of Qingdao, China. Quite differently from the good old U.S.A., China celebrates its Labor Day in the beginning of May. A bit strange to adjust to, but it meant a 5-day weekend for all of us, so we came terms to the idea pretty quickly :)
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| Jess and I enjoying the city's famous beer! In case you didn't know, Qing Dao Beer (or Tsing Tao, as it's usually written) can be found in America also...one of China's most profitable exports. I just made that up...I have no idea if that's even remotely true. But anyway, you should try it sometime :) |
When Jess and Nicole (two of my favorite traveling buddies from last year) pitched the idea of heading to Qingdao with Aaron (another fave travel companion), I was super excited about it, but first had to make sure it would work with the schedule of my good friend Taylor, who was planning to visit Wuhan over the break. Once that was all settled, I was quite stoked for one final trip with these three awesome individuals before heading back to America. The vacation was short, but honestly one of the most fun trips I've ever taken!
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| Jess, myself, Nicole, and random passerby. |
Even from the taxi ride to the airport, I knew it would be a fun trip--Jess, Nicole, and I talked about our individual quirks, and those we inherit from our parents, and we gave Aaron his official fake Chinese name (Nicole is Kou Lit, I am Plu Ki, and Jess is Du Qi). Aaron is now "Sof Ti." What a good group :)
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| Lamb kabobs...spicy, a little fatty, and absolutely delicious! |
Our flight to Qingdao was uneventful, and we settled into our wonderful hostel (helpful staff, a free beer each night, and located in an old ch*rch). Walking around that night, we discovered one of my fave parts of the city--a scrumptious "shao kao" (Chinese barbecue) place a short walk from our hostel. We feasted there every night, on pork & lamb kabobs, tasty fried bread, and tons of veggies. Our first night, we began our tradition of making toasts in circles (one word, per person, at a time) and bedtime stories. Nicole wrote hilarious summaries of each day we had in Qingdao, changing things ever-so-slightly so that all our adventures fit in the story of three princesses and a prince seeing a new kingdom and battling an evil sorcerer. Check out her blog (
http://colielehman.blogspot.com/) if you want to really soak in the humor. Aaron read her tales to us each evening...a fun way to end the day!
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| Best buddies? |
Our first full day in Qingdao was cloudy and overcast. As Jess would say: "bummer!" ;) But we made the most of it, making the walk to the seaside, discovering that foreigners are also seen as fascinating and good photo ops in Qingdao, and trying starfish. Yup, it was being sold at small food vendors all over the place, next to more standard fare.
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| The "before" shot. We had to rip the sucker apart, and eat the "meat," which was in little pellets inside. |
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| It was VERY fishy. And icky. One bite was enough for everyone, if I remember correctly. |
After our little snack, we walked along the shoreline, waded in and out through crowds of fellow tourists, and climbed some rocks.
Since the yucky weather foiled a lot of outdoor plans, we were pretty excited to see signs that the aquarium was nearby! We toured the "underwater world" for a couple hours, and were treated to sights of penguins, giant turtles, jellyfish (oddly, one of my fave parts of the place, so pretty!), sharks, and more. It was pretty fun, though we (mostly Nicole and I, methinks) were bummed that there were no dolphins as the advertising sign seemed to indicate. And, several of the rooms contained not tanks full of real animals and water, but merely replicas of fishies. A bit "China-ish" and amusing in its disappointment, at least :) And most likely the work of the evil sorcerer!!!
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| Pink and purple jellyfish! Who knew? |
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| Transparent, snowflake-esque jellyfish. |
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| Pretty sure this was just a synthetic swordfish. Also pretty sure that we got hounded by others wanting pics with us right before this was taken. |
After the aquarium, we walked to a nearby restaurant, where we got our first taste of Qingdao's famous seafood (prettymuch everyone I'd asked about Qingdao said it's beautiful and famous for its beer and seafood). We feasted on oysters, shrimp, dumplings (with mackerel inside, I think), and one land-lover's dish, a fave of ours from Wuhan. Twas delicious! And afterward, we stopped by another restaurant to try our first "Beer in a Bag." Other Americans in our group had visited Qingdao before, and mentioned their beer in a bag to us, but I'd always assumed it just came packaged that way in the store, maybe like Capri Sun, or Kwik Trip's milk in a bag ;) But nope, you just go up to the worker standing by a keg, tell them you'd like 4 beers in a bag, and they pour Tsing Tao beer into a (hopefully sanitary) bag, stick or poke a straw into it, and bam...there you have your portable, local delight.
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| This Minnie was not as kind-hearted as the REAL Disney Minnie...she made us pay her after the photos, saying "money! money!" and holding out her oversized paw :p |
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| Oyster-things, a pork and bamboo dish, and garlic prawns. Things that, a couple years back, I never imagined I'd love to eat. Especially since the shrimp were still sporting their eyes and legs! |
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| "You want beer in a bag, right?" I think she was probably asking whether we wanted one or two cups' equivalent per bag. We just got one apiece ;) |
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| The Capri Sun of China! |
Due to the inclement weather, we were pretty short on sightseeing options, and decided to taxi to the most famous part of the city, the Tsing Tao Brewery and Beer Museum. I was a bit bummed to see the so-called highlight on the first day, but it worked out quite well, since the weather was great the rest of the week, and we still had lots of cool stuff to see. Lots of our tour was pretty reminiscent of breweries I've visited in the U.S., but it was fun to see anyway, and I especially enjoyed pictures of their beer being drank/served all over the world, and a display of bottles from several different countries. Milwaukee was even featured in a picture!
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| The Chinese characters say: "Qing Dao Pi Jiu" =Tsing Tao Beer, which is pretty cool to be able to read. I wouldn't do so well with the sign below it, however :) |
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| Before our free samples (and peanuts)! |
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| Oh Chinglish...I will miss thee! |
After the brewery, we took a taxi back to the hostel. Well, kind of. Our hostel's on one side of a hill, but he dropped us off on the other side, saying we were close and directing us which way to go. We walked back and forth, up and down hills for quite awhile, asking several Chinese people along the way how to get back! Once we finally arrived, we feasted on American food (hamburgers and pizza), played some evenly-matched foosball games (right Jess? Aaron?), walked around and talked for a bit, but called it an early night. More adventures awaited! The next morning Jess, our master planner, had figured out bus routes that could take us to a famous beach, and "shi lao ren" (stone old man), a well-known landmark. The weather was gorgeous, sunny, and warm, so even though we ended up getting off the bus far too early, it worked out fine and we had a nice walk!
We'd bought some snacks and baozi (bread stuffed with meat and veggies) at a store along the way, planning to eventually picnic at the beach...but ate most of it on our voyage, haha. Once we arrived at the beach, we settled down for some nice sunbathing, splashed around in the sea a bit, and Nicole and I presented Aaron and Jess with a secret gift we'd purchased that morning: matching pajama shirts! Our team wore them the rest of the day...oh yeah...we looked goooood ;)
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| Pajama shirts to treasure for a lifetime! One of many fashion statements that I'm much more confident to make in China than in America--and probably my favorite one ever! |
We goofily took pics in our sweet outfits, laughing as a lady passing by took pictures for us, and then started making suggestions on how to pose (standing staggered, arms in the air, etc.). A couple hours talking, resting, and just enjoying the breeze and sound of the sea made for a very enjoyable afternoon.
Eventually we took the bus back into town (we were a couple hours out), and made our way to May 4th Square, I guess another "must-see" for the city, though all I knew about it beforehand was that it's where the "big red thing" is. I guess the area and "May Wind" sculpture are a monument to a rebellion and beginning of a cultural revolution in 1919. But I must confess, most of what I know about this place is still that it's a fun location in which to pose wearing goofy matching shirts, and to scurry about as quickly as possible, to evade throngs of tourists who want their pictures with you. Thankfully, compared to tall Aaron & Nicole, and golden-haired Jess, I almost blended in by comparison ;)
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| So, do you think this picture was posed? |
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| Nicole and I were so tickled to find bonnets that matched our outfits perfectly! We didn't buy, but had to pose...we've become a bit obsessed with bonnets after a trip we took together last year, and composing a pretty wicked song in tribute to them. |
We walked along the seaside for awhile, eventually beginning our search for a good dinner place, which ended up taking quite a bit of walking around, pointing at the map, and guess work. Finally we found a delish seafood place pretty close to the water. Lots of restaurants in Qingdao have tanks full of water/seafood options near to the entrance, so while Aaron and Jess would read the menu, Nicole and I would handle the equally difficult task of going up to the tanks and pointing at which food we wanted to eat, haha. We had more oysters, and my favorite little spicy clams--you can get 'em in Wuhan too, but they had a different taste in Qingdao.
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| Lovely skyline, lovely city. |
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| There was a lot of slurping involved in this delicacy :) |
We made our way back to the hostel, enjoyed some complimentary drinks, explored the old ch*rch a bit (there wasn't too much to see, which makes me wonder if they're hiding something...), and played more foosball. Then we headed to the streets close by our place, for another round of amazing bbq "shaokao" (lots of meat, mushrooms, bread, greens, potatoes, and eggplant), grabbed some beer in bags and just walked around, talking and hanging out late into the night :)
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| In Wuhan dialect these things are called "hua jia," which I think means "flower house." So good! |
The next day, the princesses and prince of Nicole's bedtime stories decided to get dressed up and tour town like the royalty they were ;) After a yummy American-style breakfast at the hostel (eggs, bacon & sausage, hash browns and toast), we ventured out and took the bus to a local scenic area.
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| Outside our hostel, the Old Ch*rch Bar. |
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| The lovely weather and cherry tree-dotted streets basically begged for us to eat ice cream. Mine turned out to be an especially melty treat. |
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| You know, sometimes you just can't resist... |
There were lots of tourists milling out and enjoying the weather, walking through parks, enjoying the blue sky, flowers, and GREEN surroundings. Quite different from Wuhan!
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| There were literally dozens of couples dotting the seaside, taking traditional wedding photos. |
We walked around several parks, made our way to the coast, and decided to tour an old castle-ish house in the area. Though it was crowded, we got a pretty sweet view of Qingdao, the sea, and lots of people out enjoying the weather :) We eventually took a taxi to another part of the city, which involved Nicole and I making fools of ourselves, singing and dancing while waiting (to the delight of onlookers), and the taxi driver getting VERY upset, looking back in anger when I first tried rolling down my window, and later started humming a Chinese song. I guess that was offensive somehow? It was funny...and unsettling.
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| These lovely hearts, just outside the castle, were a popular photo-op spot, so we had to dash in there in order to get a picture with just the four of us. Well, six of us? Seven? Close enough. |
We decided to spend the first half of the evening at Beer Street, a restaurant-lined place that is, well, exactly what it sounds like. But we got distracted by a typical Chinese outdoor market, selling tons of food, goods, clothes, and souvenirs, and did a fair amount of exploring and shopping around there first.
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| Hei si pi jiu zai pi jiu jie = Dark Beer at Beer Street. |
The four of us wandered around, checking out prices and types of beer different restaurants had to offer. I'm sure we ended up paying more touristy prices, but it was fun to sample a few different local flavors, hang out on the patio, laughing, exchanging college and childhood stories, and savoring vacation!
We decided to have our favorite local bbq place for dinner that night, thinking it would be our last time there...it's hard to describe how delicious the food was, how cool it was to be able to order it by ourselves, and how relaxing it was sitting outside in the cool evening. It's also hard to describe how entertaining it was watching Jess have a little crush on our "fu wu yuan" (waiter). He was a peppy (or "jippity," as Jess liked to say) guy who got excited to serve us every night we came. Nicole, Aaron and I headed back to Beer Street later on, just splitting one pitcher and having a nice late-night chat.
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| Mmmmmm...that is all. |
I woke up sad on our last morning in Qingdao, not wanting to leave and face the realities of teaching and responsibility just yet. But, after check-out time we still had several hours to walk around, so we headed back to the section of the seaside that we checked out our first, dreary day in the city. We also went sunglasses shopping with Aaron, which turned out to be funny--one saleslady insisted that EVERY pair he tried on was "好看" (hao kan = good-looking), even huge blue frames, women's glasses, or Harry Potter-style shades.
Oh yeah! And Nicole and I realized we hadn't tried something we'd seen filling up local vendors' stands: SQUID on a stick! Today was the day...
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| They cook and season the squid right in the same place as chicken kabobs and other less-threatening foods, so it can't be that bad, right? Plus, I love Olive Garden's calamari... |
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| The verdict: you could definitely tell very clearly that it was squid, primarily in appearance, but also in taste. Much much more fishy than anything squid-ish I'd tasted in the past. But, it was better than the starfish :D |
In the late morning we checked out an old ch*rch, built centuries ago, forced to shut down by the gov't during the Cultural Revolution, but re-opened a couple decades back. While the ch*rch probably doesn't teach HIS Word in complete truth and purity (gov't-run), it's always encouraging to see groups gathering together, professing to be Chr*stians. We got to see some of that, the ch*ch had BOOKS inside, and a big picture of J*sus upstairs by the bell tower (which we visited, and were nearly scared silly by, when it rang while we were in very close proximity to it). An uplifting visit, and once again we were entertained by many couples taking wedding photos outside of it when we left.
Our time in the mystical land of Qingdao ended on a pretty mellow note--we walked to our hostel, stopping for ice cream on the way, and decided that as delicious as Qingdao's seafood was, we really wanted one last meal from our bbq fave. Along with the usual kabobs and veggies, we also ordered a dish of chicken, veggies, and clams, in a delicious, creamy sauce...one of my fave things I've eaten this year, probably.
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| I believe we walked up this hill only to come back down a few minutes later. This shall happen when you're a foreigner trying to navigate your way around a strange city :) |
On the plane ride back to Wuhan, I kept replaying the fun of the trip, thinking about how blessed I am that HE gave me such wonderful friends during my time here (Chinese and American), and honestly, second-guessing my decision NOT to return here next year. But, no matter what the future holds, I know it's in HIS hands, and I'm so grateful for my princess sisters and prince brother for letting me travel together with them one last time! It was a jippity, joppity, unforgettable trip! Love you all :)
