Obsequious Observatory?

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The train ride to Qingdao was rather uneventful, aside from being impressed by the whole bullet train thing. Hard seat class was like being on an airplane, right down to the airsickness bags they passed out. They also passed out small bottles of water. The seats were adjustable (backs reclined and seats could move forward or back). There was lots of legroom and fold down tables. There were a handful of stops, the first being at Tianjin West Station, which was exactly an hour after departure. The sign that we were greeted with as we pulled into the station at Qingdao referenced the Olympics. The touts around the station spoke to me in Chinese. A refreshing change, but I already had reservations at a hotel. At the hostel, they started to tell me that the fee was 50 RMB/night. I said that online it said 30 +20%. We went through all the details. I even showed them the website on my laptop. They hadn’t said a price in their confirmation email. So guess what I paid. 36 RMB per night. It’s funny because I’ve seen a fair number of situations where there doesn’t seem to be any concern over false advertising in China. I wasn’t making a big deal about it—in fact, I was prepared to pay 50 RMB/night, which is what it said on their sign behind the front desk. I was just answering their questions. They apologized and everything. No harm done by it, as far as I can tell. Plus, it makes me feel smug when I think that I’m paying about $1.84 less per night than each of the other 5 people in this room. I briefly talked to one other woman who seemed very nice. I also accidentally tried to open the wrong locker and found out that my key works not only on my locker, but on another one as well. I hope I’m the only guest to discover this.
Qingdao is hilly. It also seemed rather humid. I worked up a sweat during my wanderings this evening at any rate. I found a long street with all sorts of stuff spread out on blankets for sale. I particularly liked a big pile of stuffed animals. There were quite a few people selling long, spirally balloons. I saw a few people carrying around bags of beer. I can’t quite figure out how that works. Maybe a straw is included. Oh yeah, I also saw a lot of cats. Funny how different cities have their quirks. Will be fun to see what I can see tomorrow.

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