From Tai'an we went to Qingdao. Qingdao is a nice, modern, yet traditional, beachfront city. Over the course of history, it has changed hands a few times, probably because of location. It has a port, built by the Germans. This has been used militarily as well as comercially, by whomever had control of the city.
We got there early in the morning, and just walked around the old-town. There was an old church there, that happened to be closed when we went to check it out. The old town, as well as the impressive train station, was built largely by the Germans in the early early 1900's. The buildings alternated between German and Chinese architecture, many restored from back in the day. We went to another church that was opened, and climbed up to the bell tower. Eric, probably engineer style, was just fascinated with the gears and wheels that made the clock and bell work. The gadget (I am not an engineer) was from 1905ish, and well oiled. He should really write about it...my confused layman opinion will probably confuse anyone reading this, and even more confuse anyone reading this who actually knows anything about gadgets. To me, a lever swung, some wheels with jagged edges turned, another lever swung, a pulley moved, and eventually the bell rang. We spent a half an hour in there staring at it. Eric took pictureS, and videoS of the thing.
From there, Eric and I went to the Tsingtao beer factory. It was alright, but it left a little to be desired.I think eric and i liked the beer moreso before going to the factory than we did afterwards. Germans held the town for technically 99 years, although
it appears they really held it for about 15 years. Things that the Germans
built are still well kept and intact. What happened for the rest of the
years? Japan took over, although I forget exactly how. Japan bought the
Tsingtao brewery from Germany as well. The funny thing is there is no trace
of Japan ever being there. And the beer factory? There are signS that
publish who the "boards of directors" at the beer factory were, from 1901
(or whenever it was started by the Germans) until they no longer held it in
1916. There are notices of awards given to the "international beer." One
sign was repeated 3-4 times. It just seemed funny that an "international"
beer won the competion (which was held in Germany). Tsingtao, at that
point, was run by germans, built by germans, the recipe was german, and all
ingredients were imported from Germany. (To me it sounds like a German beer
won a German beer competition, but whatever.) After WW2, China took over
the beer factory, and I believe the town as well. There are again signS of the boards of directors. The comical thing was the 30 year gap, held by China's favorite folks. It's just not mentioned. There is no visible trace of Japan ever being there (let alone for 30+ years) although the 15 German years are almost bragged about. It's kind of funny, if you read up on it and it's history before going.
With that said though, Qingdao is beautiful. It's a bit cooler there than
it is in Xi'an, and it snowed for about 10 minutes while we were there. There is a beautiful beachfront, with a long, paved, beachfront trail. The trail goes 40k, and
Eric and I passingly discussed spontaneously running it before we realized
that was a marathon. Yeah...pass. LaoShan is nearby, although we didn't have enough time to go there. The city of Qingdao is windy, smells of sea and sea food, and there are fishmarkets and kaorou stands smattered throughout the streets. I can see why the Olympics sailing and other water events were held there.
Qingdao is famous for barbecue, so of course we had to test their reputation. We stuffed ourselves on kebabs, chicken wings, pork-stuffed eggplant, beer, and of course tea. Everything was great. We stuffed ourselves full of our of our pre-Thanksgiving feast, and slept in the next morning. We walked around the old town a bit more, and then headed off to the train staion for the night train back to Xi'an.
Our train bunk neighor was a 60 year old Chinese lady, who we talked with a bit. She got a kick out of my piles of Chinese/English flash cards as well as Eric's book. We actually spent an hour or more going over the flashcards together. I think she got a kick out
of teaching the foreigners. Eric stands out, being 6.2, very blond, white, and blue-eyed. I think people sometimes think it's a novelty to talk to him. (He even gets "petted." People, especially kids, just go up to him and rub his arms. I think it's because he is hairy, and most asians aren't. In addition to simply having body hair, his is yellow.) Anyway, since we spent our turkey day traveling through China we might do an after Thanksgiving dinner here, and call up the other Americans (including us, it will be a
party of five). Why not?
We really enjoyed Qingdao, and we wouldn't mind going back. We could climb
Laoshan, bike the beachfront trail, and easily find other things to do to
entertain ourselves.
