Intercontinental Qingdao

Final day of our trip. Only hv time for some city shots. So we started off with the German Governer's Hall. Then the Protestant Church. Super night weather this morning and that really finished our photography trip perfectly.

So this Qing Dao trip really brought lots of chances for me to try out different perspectives at different subjects. The architectures are authentic (you only need to purposely avoid the aluminium window ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantai

Sadly we didn't have enough time to scroll through the city too much. We caught the coach in the morning back to Qing Dao.

We checked in a chain hotel (again) quickly and off we go for lunch. Korean food, surprise! Superbly nice and CHEAP. Then we rushed off to hunt for the sunset! Scrolling along the seashore, walking bit up ...

So today is the day for Peng Lai. The weather wasn't that favourable for shooting today. Bit misty/foggy. So I did focus bit more on the details of the architectures with the 70-300mm zoom and my DC for snapshots.

For anyone who never heard of Peng Lai before. Firstly it's claimed to be one of the prettiest natural scenary in the world. Different seasonal and day-change views, namely the Mirage (
海市蜃楼). Secondly, it's ...

... 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)

... which was tiny and a bit of a con. A theatre in the distance looked like Sydney Opera house but it was falling apart. But the city still had a load of charms and defintly warranted a few days. Our second day in the city and it was off on a tour of the Tsingtao Brewery which turned out to be really good and gave a great history of the German influence in the city and how it became a famous city. Free beer and peanuts went down very well ...

... It was quite good but not as good as the one the other day. The area where my hostel is has quite a lot of colonial architecture and it is quite a hilly area with a lot of pretty streets and parks, I got back to the hotel and had dinner with my Japanese room mate at one of the local resturants. I was planning to head out on the town but I had planned to go to Laoshan on Wednesday so decided to have an early night.

... one. It was smaller, a more suburban town in the mountains, with no buildings more than three stories, and fewer people, which surprisingly was nice after all of the cities. But then, about twenty minutes in, I started to get frustrated with the driving. The roads had four lane roads and people drove positively all over them. People cut each other off to try to pass each other, but then would end up getting stuck behind a bus or some other large slow-moving vehicle ...

... into the mall. Once on the ship I realized just how tired I was but since we were in port I knew I had to go out. I ran up to Kat's room and we decided that Steph, her, and I would go and grab a bite to eat before going up to Victoria Peak. Since I had never been to a California Pizza Kitchen and it was one of their favorite places to eat we decided to eat there in the mall. It was amazing. I had the BLT pizza, surprise surprise, and they had free refills. A first in all the ...

... are in order. Get the feeling they don't like foreigners? Or just don't understand us... And this week's prize goes to whoever can tell me what this means. So is your signage. I feel like this should be a Haiku poem. Hoorah to the sign writers ...