Qingdao (part 2)

Picking up where I left off last time, I ventured further out into Qingdao and Tuesday. That morning, I tried to buy a train ticket to Beijing (for Friday), but found out I could only buy it starting the next morning. Already in downtown, I decided to check out the waterfront. It was another cool and cloudy day, but the beach was still packed with people. It's certainly not a tropical beach, either, with the mild weather. So I was plenty happy to walk alongside all the madness and watch from a distance.

I decided it'd be a good idea to walk all the way to the end of the peninsula that Qingdao sits on. I figured maybe there would be some nice views from down there, and the map seemed to indicate a big green area that might be a park.

Couldn't have been further from the truth. The further I went, the more run-down things became. The big piece of green on the map turned out to be nothing more than a walled-off field surrounded by run-down apartment buildings. But the views looking back to the city were pretty good, which made the walk at least semi-worth it. All told, I think I walked about 10 miles that day if I'm doing my estimates right.

A church, quite the rarity in China (outside of Qingdao).
I thought this one turned out pretty good, and the weather was a bit less hazy than the previous rendition.
Looking back on the city from land's end.

I stopped by the American Embassy (i.e. McDonald's) for a late lunch. The girl behind the counter gave me a scared look and said "My... English is... very poor." Luckily my not-so-expansive vocabulary includes "cheeseburger", "corn" (they offer a choice of corn or fries, which is kind of cool), and "Sprite", so I managed.

After that I hiked back up to the hostel and did one last bit of laundry. Went back down the hill a little later and found an entire underground shopping street (literally built underground) filled with things I'd never actually want to buy. By this time it was evening, and I was hungry again so I stopped in a little restaurant across the street from the hill my hostel's on. They liked to laugh at me until they found out I could actually read part of their menu, which was satisfying.

Wednesday was the main event: the town's namesake Tsingtao Brewery. I had originally planned on taking a cab there, but by the time I sighted an open cab I had already walked halfway there. In fact, I walked everywhere in Qingdao except for my trips to and from the train station on my first and last day.

Anyway, I was walking through a not-so-nice-looking part of town close to the brewery, wondering if I was in the right place. Turned the corner, and all of the sudden there was a big street lined with nearly-identical seafood/beer restaurants. And across from all this was the brewery. It seemed like a pretty standard brewery tour (although I only have the Guinness factory in Dublin as reference), with beer history followed by a how-we-make-the-beer segment, and topped off with a bar at the end. But this one had two key differences: they actually still bottle beer at the plant, which we got to see firsthand---that was really cool. And second, the free samples provided at the end of the tour are limitless. Basically it's ￥50 ($7) for a tour and unlimited free beer. I thought that was pretty nuts. But as it was just me and it was around 4pm, I only had about a pint before setting off again.

I decided to try one of the seafood places across the street. Had a little trouble reading their menu, as I'm not very good with seafood vocabulary. So I ended up with a plate of spicy shellfish, which fortunately turned out to be very good. I decided to have another beer, too. She showed me the menu, with five different types of Tsingtao. I just went with the standard one, for ￥10. Turns out this was ￥10 for a pitcher, as that's the smallest unit they dispense there. Wasn't able to make much of a dent in this before I finished my dinner. The waitress asked if I was going to just leave the beer, and I said "yeah, you can finish it". This all made paying ￥40+ for a pitcher in Beijing seem like a really stupid idea.

Below are some pictures from the brewery. On the history part: basically, the Germans got Qingdao on a 99-year lease in the 1890s and figured they'd be there for awhile, so they started the brewery. Awhile later they lost control of the place to Japan, which kept the beer but changed the name, etc. Eventually China got it back, and now it's Tsingtao beer again.

Tsingtao Brewery, exterior.
Big stack'o'beer.
The bottling plant portion of the factory, and the last photo my camera will take this trip (read below).
Wall of different can/bottle types.
This thing was about 500% more technical than all the other information presented in the tour. The tubes of light move (quickly) to represent the beer process, and it gets pretty out of hand by the end.
Apparently they like beer, too.
The old manufacturing facility.
And the new (behind the glass, of course).

I should also note that I found out the other day that I have lost one important thing thus far this trip: my camera battery's charger. The thing rarely needs to be charged, and the last time I remember doing so was in Cambodia, so that's probably where it is right now. In any case, it's gone, and the battery itself promptly gave out the day after I discovered it was missing, halfway through the brewery tour. I had no luck finding a replacement at an electronics store, but I can get one when I go home. So unless I buy a disposable, that'll be the end of new photos for this trip. But I have plenty of shots of Qingdao, and I've already been to Beijing, so I really didn't have many more photos to take, anyway.

Thursday I spent relaxing, and consolidating/repacking for the trip to Beijing and then back home. I also found an English-language bookstore with actual English books (not just English study aids), so I spent some time reading.

Friday morning (that's today), I was off to the train station early, checking out at 6am. When I finally did buy my train ticket at about 10am on Wednesday, the only seats remaining were on the early train to Beijing (there are three express trains every day). So while I had originally wanted to go on the noon train, I didn't have much of a choice.

I mentioned earlier how Qingdao's primary railway station just opened, and how I arrived there from Shanghai. Well, they're still splitting train routes between it and the secondary station, which had been the main station during reconstruction. Anyway, my train left from this secondary station, which was quite a treat. The place is basically a warehouse next to the tracks on the outskirts of town. That might actually be giving it too much credit.

So I sat on a bench in the gigantic, unadorned room that is Sifang "railway station" for about fifteen minutes. Then there was the characteristic Chinese madrush for the already-assigned seats, which I'll never understand. (They did this at the airport too, with people literally running around barriers and pushing to be the first on the plane, again with assigned seats.) As I boarded the train from the end of the line, I was pretty impressed with the second-class (lowest class) seat I was lucky to have gotten a ticket for. Traveling by train is infinitely more comfortable (and cheaper) than by plane, final decision.



This train was one of China's new CRH electric-powered bullet-train things, and it was very cool. Everything was brand new and clean on the inside, and the train itself tops out at 250km/h, which got us through the 900km to Beijing (with four stops) in a little over five hours.

As I wrote this, I was finishing up that train ride to Beijing. As I go back and post it now, I'm sitting in my room at the final hostel, only a few blocks from Tienanmen. At least one more entry to come on Beijing, where the skies are (somewhat) more blue than they were a month ago. Stay tuned...