Century Mandarin Hotel Qingdao

... views are spectacular, and somehow it also has the glimse of lifestyle from a big city. Thus to say, mixture of everything.

Definitely worth the visit, and the coldness...


Hightlights of visits:
. The Protestant Church(基督教堂 )
. Jiaozhou Governor's Hall (提督府), office building of former German governors [Gouverneurspalast] and former municipal government

... down the hills, we finally settled on a slightly outward hill...it's only 3:30pm and the sun is already preparing for the day-off......Point to note for the sunset fans, you gotta start early for that in Qing Dao. By 4:30pm the whole sunset process is done and we went for some city sightseeing, christmas trees and decos are all around already, nice lights there.

... the leganary Eight Immortals crossed the sea. Thirdly, it's where 2 rivers joins.

For me, I knew it from a local singer-song-writer (Sam Hui) 's song apart from the above.
(Sorry it's only in cantonese lyrics)
何處覓" 028;萊
曲：許 ;冠傑　詞ᦂ 6;許冠傑/黎 444;得

心嚮 4448;蓬萊 / 想身處 ...

... out the driver turned on the highest temperate possible and for once, someone can't stand it and shout aloud so we didn't end up with heart burnt....yikes.

Finally arrived at Yan Tai at 6ish pm..Quickly checkin to a chain hotel, it's just RMB188 per night, superbly cheap. Can't expect lux settings, but good and neat enough for a quick stay.

... br>.. Kang Youwei (康有为)
.. Wen Yiduo (闻一多)
.. Wang Tongzhao (王统照)
.. Laoshe (舒庆春，ढ 3;老舍)
.. Hong Shen (洪深)
.. Shen Congwen (沈从文)
.. Liang Shiqiu (梁实秋)
.. Duanmu Hongliang (端木蕻良)

... to pull off this complex coverage of sailing on 5 courses, well this group was brought together by Mark Walsh from Sydney. Walshy, wrangled Kiwis and Aussies, all who have either sailed or coached in Olympic classes themselves. All Walshy's hires are very accomplished (one gold medalist) and all quite good at seamanship during a regatta. I mentioned earlier, all the boats on the water at a given race course. For host TV we are allowed close to ...

... impressed with the rest of the trip. the tour that the company's been booked on is apparently a typical chinese tour. the tour guide started by telling us the history of tsingtao (in chinese, of course.) all the co-workers were making fun of her thick northern accent. she was throwing in random r's. and now my chinese is good enough where i can pick up on the crazy r's.

but the funny thing about the tour was all the weird and random **** they'd try to sell ...

... lost, and we didn't end up getting in until 4am on monday morning. At least we got to skip class the next day, lol! But all in all it was a really good weekend, and at the end I actually felt like I'd had a mini-vacation, even though it was only three days long (it felt longer :), and came back to Beijing very relaxed and refreshed! Now I just have to get myself out of relax mode to study for my upcoming midterms! Anyways, hope all is well at home and miss you all, xox Katie

... don't speak any English' and 'Amazing! I can't believe it! You are Super Girl for coming alone. So amazing! I can't believe this'. I would be lying if I said it didn't make me a tad nervous. He spoke fondly of the beaches and how this was such an amazing place, 'so special!'. I tried to ask 'in the week you have been here, have you swum at all? It is too cold, yes?' and he replied "yes, yes, but you can walk beach, dinner the seafoods" and ...

... will be missing, something magical will be gone... They say that Guinness Beer doesn't travel well, so drinking a Guinness anywhere outside of Dublin, Ireland or Accra, Ghana (the only other place in the world where Guinness is brewed!), just won't have the same refreshing taste, it just won't have that magic. So it is with Haier outside of China... That missing element is its curious emblem, cheerily pasted onto the face of its products. The logo ...