Santiago 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.

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)

... return for refueling (a 30-40 minute process) has to go through Mr. Hoa via Greg or one of his assistance. An interpreter is involved. Then the pilots get word from the base tower and all systems are go. In the air, and interpreter sits with my cameraman who relays commands to the pilots. The army Helis are French built "Dauphine" aircrafts, quite inefficient for this operation. Too large, too load and not able to hover longer than about 3-5 ...

... the thing spent over 240 taels of silver on the house. after its completion, he ended up getting fired because it was so extravagant. mao had also stayed there back in the day. the tour guide felt a need to tell us that at least 5 times.) and the tsingtao brewery. all would be 50 quai and would take a couple of hours. we could only do one.

took a vote. only the foreigners wanted to go to the brewery. most of the chinese wanted to sleep on the bus. but they finally agreed to go to ...

... had printed out the map of where our hotel was beyond near this train station, so thankfully Jesse had saved one of the web pages on his computer, so we could write down the address. Then we walked around for two and a half hours asking anyone and everyone if they knew where the hotel or the address was. Every person we asked seemed to point us in a different direction and tell us that it was a five minute walk, which was fabulous. Finally, we ended up at a police station and they gave ...

... montre le plan... ambiance dans la rue :p Visite du pavillon Huilan, symbole de la ville. Il est meme represente sur les bouteilles de biere Tsingtao. A l'interieur, on peut visiter pour 4 yuans une petite et jolie exposition de coauillage et voir un bel aquarium ou il y a de grosses tortues. La visite de la jetee est une epreuve de slalom, dans le sens ou il y a un nombre vraiment tres tres ...