My summer schedule means that I have from Wednesday afternoon to Friday night off to do as I please. Even though the weather is changeable, to say the least, it is nonetheless Summer so what is called for are copious visits to our local beaches and when a willing
See? People love to spend time with me...
Historically known as Tsingtao, Qīng in Chinese means "green" or "lush", while dǎo means "island". Lying across the Shandong Peninsula while looking out to the Yellow Sea, Qingdao is a major seaport, naval base, and industrial centre. It is also the site of the Tsingtao Brewery. Naturally this had no bearing on my decision to visit this, of all cities.
Qingdao has the world's longest sea bridge, the Qingdao Haiwan Bridge, which links the main urban area of Qingdao with Huangdao district. Having visited it comes as no surprise to me that Qingdao is named China's most liveable city.
Qingdao is a city steeped in China's 20th century history. It was taken as part of the Imperial German Concession of Jiaozhou Bay.
The concession treaty was signed on 6 March 1899, for a 99-year lease. The Germans acquired it as a relatively unimportant town of about 1,000 inhabitants. Yet by 1902, it had grown to 668 Caucasians and 15,000 Chinese. Despite on-going discussions with Chinese authorities about giving the Germans a territory, on 7 November 1897, they landed troops. Their pretext was the murder of two missionaries on 1 November of that year. In 1891, the Qing government decided to make the area a defence base against naval attack and began to improve Qingdao's existing fortifications. German naval officials observed and reported on this Chinese activity during a formal survey of Jiaozhou Bay in May 1897. Subsequently, German troops seized and occupied the fortification. China conceded the area to Germany the following year, and the Kiautschou Bay concession, as it became known, existed from 1898 to 1914.
Upon gaining control of the area, the Germans outfitted the impoverished fishing village of "Tsingtao" (Qingdao) with wide streets, solid housing areas, government buildings, electrification throughout, a sewer system and a safe drinking water supply, a rarity in large parts of Asia at that time and later. The area had the highest school density and the highest per capita student enrolment in all of China, with primary, secondary and vocational schools funded by the Imperial German treasury and Protestant and Roman Catholic missions. Commercial interests established the Germania Brewery in 1903, which later became the world-famous Tsingtao Brewery. German influence extended to other areas of Shandong Province, including the establishment of diverse commercial enterprises.
During the colonial period, the Germans left a distinct mark on Qingdao's architecture that can still be seen in its historic centre and train station. The train station has undergone a recent overhaul that has tried to strike a balance between maintaining its colonial heritage while modernising to be the terminus of the high speed rail line to Beijing. Many German-period buildings have been preserved as heritage monuments. It is a kind of Bavaria-on-the-East-China-Sea, where they even sell Bratwurst on the street.
Japan occupied Qingdao on 27 August, 1914, as part of World War I, and remained until 1922. They took the city because they were allied with the British against the Germans during World War I. After the war, the Japanese wanted to continue to hold the city for the remainder of the German lease, and the Chinese government was going to accede. However, protests by students in Beijing during the May 4th Movement of 1919, eventually forced them to return the city to Chinese sovereignty. The city reverted to Chinese rule in December, 1922, under control of the Republic of China.
In 1937, the Japanese again took Qingdao and remained until the end of World War II in 1945. Between 1945 and 1949 the American 7th Fleet was based in Qingdao as it assisted the Kuomintang in fighting the Communist Party; the Communists took the city in 1949.
While Qingdao has a long history, the eastern half of the city has been built since 1993, and there is no sign of it slowing down. In 2008, it hosted the sailing events of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. http://wikitravel.org/en/Qingdao
The Olympic Sailing Centre
We arrived in the fabled city at around 7pm so did what people do when they go on holiday: checked into our hotel (which, incidentally was so awful we checked out first thing the next morning) and headed for the nearest bar. This actually took almost two hours as taxis are nigh on impossible to flag down during peak season, however we happened to find a lovely little chap who eventually drove us around for the two days (*sort of. More of that later...). The only problem with finding a lovely little chap was that, as is the way when Chinese people get together, they taaaaaaaaalk. And talk and talk and talk. The car journey was conducted amidst a very heated discussion which I thought might end in us being ejected from Shandong Province. When I later asked Carrie what that madness was all about, she breezily replied 'Oh, he believes in God, he told us where to find some great food, he said that women from Jiangsu are more beautiful than Shandong but Shandong women have better skin, he offered to pick us up after dinner to take us back to the hotel and he'll be our driver for the next few days. Nice guy'.
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Anyhoo, I was delighted to be dropped at a bar that was like a real-life American bar, complete with American guys propping up the woodwork, Bob Dylan blaring from the speakers and Long Island Ice Tea on the menu. To top it off, there was a backwards Welsh flag hanging on the Wall! This was the first I'd seen in China.
We got merrily pissed then headed off to a Jazz bar where we drank Merlot, ate French fries, Parma ham and olives and whiled away the night with Harry, the bar owner and his boyfriend. It was like being abroad!
The next morning was an early start to capitalise on our short time in Qingdao. The driver was ready and waiting at 8am to whisk us off to wherever we needed to be. He also agreed to store our bags in his boot until we checked into a new hotel later that day.
Breakfast Qingdao style. We had delicious coriander soup, a duck egg and a kind of savoury doughnut that is common in China.
When we arrived we were herded around for a while in the baking sun before joining what I can only describe as a swarm of around a billion people who had all decided to do the same thing as us at exactly the same moment in time.
Look how happy I am to be posing for a Chienese style tourist photo at 8:30am in 98 degree heat, whilst hideously hungover and almost deaf from all of the shouting and squealing and caterwauling. This was freaking F.U.N. OK?!
I later found out that this look was not 'serenity', it was 'clutching at straws to keep it together'.
The queue that went on into the end of time/bowels of hell.
We entered the building almost by levitation as we were carried along in the crowd. The Health & Safety Executive would have a field day here.
The first half of the 'tour' involved trying not to get trampled to death whilst not being able to see any of the shit exhibits due to people trying very hard to obliterate you in any way possible. Thanks to the Chinese's propensity for photographing everything in sight in lieu of blinking I didn't need to record any of this madness as Carrie did it all. All I had to do was focus on getting out alive.
A number of factors made this experience enjoyable for me. 1) I'd never been involved in this kind of intensive follow-the-red-flag tour before so it was an experience 2) Many things were hilarious, such as the woman in front of me, who would announce confidently each time we would pass an exhibit that approximated an edible beast 'Hao chi' which means good food. I think she was missing the point of this place. I don't think it was intended as a 3D menu of exotic food.
Hao chi
Hao chi
Hao chi
3) The floor was a conveyor belt. This was endlessly funny; watching hundreds of people move around together looking at fish whilst on a conveyor belt. Too surreal. Too ridiculous. Excellent!
Look, in the background you can see the tube of people mooing by on the conveyor belt!
Having spent a little time conveying, we had to make a pit stop for Carrie to vomit as the heat and the fish and the underwater-ness of it all had gotten the better of her hangover. We decided to leave. Only problem - you CAN'T LEAVE! The only way to get out is to continue through the entire poxy place until you are spat out in the 'gift' store! The great thing about this is that we passed the biggest Perspex fish tower in the world. Now who on God's Earth wouldn't want to see that, huh?
The other fantastic thing about this unfortunate situation was that I got to see the gift shop. In a gruesome finale I witnessed true irony. The gift shop was stacked from start to finish with dried/smoked/tinned/potted fish. You could buy fish in any preserved form from desiccated to plastic. Never before have I visited a place that offers it's exhibits in edible form at the end. Thank heavens we hadn't decided to go to a zoo. Or a hospital. Or a sewerage works. They would, you know.
Fish in a pot.
Fish in a pouch.
Fish in bags, boxes, wrappers and mouths.
Having narrowly escaped with both my life and sanity just-about intact, we decided to head for a much needed lunch. Now as you all know, when I'm hungry and hungover, the best thing to do is to start fannying about talking to every single person you meet, make a few phone calls, ask a passer by about interesting places to visit and if you can, stop to have your portrait drawn by the most talkative artist in the Eastern World. This is what makes me happy when I'm hungry.
Thankfully all of this only took around two hours so when we eventually flagged down one of the elusive taxis I was more than happy to go to an Italian Restaurant recommended by him.
I was pretty excited to be in a restaurant that didn't serve Chinese food; Carrie less so as she had to use those pesky metal tools to eat with and the food wasn't Chinese. We ate a civilised three course meal (even though they brought everything out at the same time, including an accidental lamb shank that hadn't been ordered) and drank a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. The day was improving.
Following lunch, we wandered around for a while taking in the sights. Qingdao is a fairly big city and the selection of international restaurants, shops, foreign faces and English words brought sharply into focus just how provincial my little city of Xinpu is, and it made me love it all the more. I wasn't excited to see Americans and Australians and British people everywhere. In fact I was happy to discover that I like living in an almost alien environment as it affords a welcome change from everything that is familiar. Even though I miss family, friends and certain comforts, I like the rough and ready aspect of Lianyungang and was feeling almost, almost, homesick for it. Strange but true. Nonetheless, Qingdao is fantastic and I will certainly return as two days can only serve as a tiny little taster.
Bike ride done, shopping for tacky seaside tat accomplished, time to find a hotel to charge up both phones which were dying and get showered to rid ourselves of the days sweat, vomit, lunchtime booze and general sophisticated grime. We headed to a main road to hail our driver. We called and gave him our location. He assured us he was on his way so we sat on two bollards and waited.
And waited.
Aaaaand waited.
We were unable to call as both our phones had died and our chargers were in our bags. We were unable to go to our next destination as that was the beach and the driver had our clothes in his boot. We borrowed around three phones from various passers by and kept being assured that he was on his way. We played word games. Talked to other tourists. Drew sketches, got grumpy and eventually the most handsome man in China arrived complete with our bags and finally whisked us off in his battered minivan, alongside his midget best friend in the passenger seat, to the beach.
It was now around 7pm and getting dark and this is the optimum time for Chinese people to hang out at the beach because there is no danger of your skin 'turning black' in the sun. The beach was full of happy families and the sea was choccabloc with arm-banded non-swimmers and rubber-capped serious swimmers alike. We spent an hour or two splashing around like fools before being driven to a hotel to dump bags and then driven to the centre of town for eating, shopping and general mooching. This drive also took over an hour as lengthy debates about goodness-only-knows what occurred and meant that what should have only taken ten minutes turned into an event in itself. The Spanish and their mañana philosophy have nothing on these guys. The concept of time is a very elastic thing here.
Buying Id The Kid some low grade Chinese tat from a street hawker, that I'm sure he'll love.
Despite the hours wasted due to the infuriatingly relaxed drivers it was a fun day.
Day three started with a speedboat ride and ended with an obligatory Tsing Tao seafood lunch before catching the bus home.
Before.
You can always rely on me to look elegant and sophisticated wherever I am.
After.
Me being photographed being watched (exhibit A behind my left shoulder). You become oblivious to being constantly observed, given enough beer, erm, I mean time.
Fresh crabmeat in some kind of sticky sauce.
One of my 'vegetable' dishes: mushrooms in some kind of bacon and some kind of sticky sauce.
Another of my 'vegatable' dishes: vegetables in batter and some kind of sticky sauce. True story.
The Chinese always order Too Much Food. If only the food was always great...
Eventful. Fun. Will return. Good work Qingdao!
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