John in China: Qingdao (part 1)

The previous post was written on Monday morning, as I arrived here in Qingdao. It's now Wednesday evening, so I've seen a fair bit of the city.

Qingdao's a lot different from Beijing. It's situated on the ocean, surrounded on three sides with water. There's a bay to the north, and open ocean to the south. So seafood and shipping are pretty big here.

This time, I'm staying in a place a little outside of downtown. It's called the Old Observatory, which I didn't think too much about before arriving. But it's called the Old Observatory because the place is a former observatory. So, for one, it's on top of a huge hill, barely accessible by car. It's easier just to get dropped off at the bottom and walk up, as most of the rest of the hill is a park. Also, it has a great view of the city from the observation domes and terraces on the rooftop, which are now a restaurant/bar. And they have real coffee at this restaurant. In short, another really awesome place, for $10/night.

The city is really hard to navigate, with no subway system. Plus, most of the terrain is very hilly, so streets are rarely straight. The weather is a nice change, though. This is the hottest time of year, and it rarely hits 80. In fact, the place is usually covered in clouds/fog and has a good breeze.

Nobody here speaks English. It certainly makes for good practice, but it's also a little scary. I have not spoken English to a single person since I arrived, aside from a few kids who wanted a picture with me.

Qingdao has a pretty interesting history. It's Chinese, of course, but was occupied by Germany and Japan for the better part of the period between 1890 and the 1940s. The Germans contributed some cool buildings and the famous Qingdao (Tsingtao) beer, which is about the only beer in China worth drinking. The brewery is still here, and it was actually the only attraction I knew of before arriving.

So on the first day, I bought a map and tried to figure out where I was. As it turns out, I'm relatively close to everything but actually close to nothing... so I've been doing a lot of walking. That afternoon, I walked over to the governor's mansion, a big Western-style house where the German governor resided. Later, Mao would meet with his cronies there, too.

Even though I've seen a little more than this already, I'm going to stop here and break Qingdao up into two entries so it's not so long. Tuesday's and Wednesday's adventures took me to the beach and the brewery, so stay tuned for that.

Below are some photos of the city, most of them taken from the rooftop of the hostel. Also included are some pictures of the governor's mansion, and Qingdao's new railway station that I arrived at from Shanghai. It only opened a few days ago, just in time for the Olympics (the sailing events are held here).

The terrace, where I've been eating breakfast. They want ￥30 for a breakfast including a latte, which would be absurd if the coffee weren't so good. For reference, a Starbucks latte alone is over ￥25.