From the mountains to the sea: Taishan and Qingdao

This weekend was the best!

I went traveling with my room mate (Demi), and two other guys from our program (Sam and Sheldon). They were really great! Every one was so laid back and down to earth; it was a huge relief.

Our first stop was Taishan mountain in Shandong province. As the legend goes, in ancient times there lived a man who kept growing and growing and growing. Eventually after some thousands of years he died from exhaustion and fell to the earth. His arms, legs and head formed five mountains of which Taishan. The mountain formed from his head is the holiest mountain in Daoist thought. It was believed that the heavens would reject any one found to be unfit from ascending the mountain, so before assuming the throne, the emperor would have to climb Taishan to prove his worth.
See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tai

This mountain was BRUTAL! I could have easily spent a whole day climbing it, but we actually climbed it in just 4 to 5 hours. We pushed ourselves all the way to the top. Demi and Sam moved the fastest, so Sheldon and I were constantly trying to keep up with them. I mean, none of us are unhealthy by any means, but Sheldon and I still can't understand how those two got up that mountain so fast. Truthfully, I wasn't sure that I could make it. If it weren't for my comrade in slowness (Sheldon) pushing me, I'm not sure I would have had the ambition to go to the top. The stairs were the worst part. The stairs were so steep and so tiny that sometimes... most of the time... your whole foot wouldn't fit on the step. Uhhhh~ My legs are SO stiff, tight, tired and sore from that.... You can imagine how relieved we were when we reached the top. We rented some coats and lay down to sleep under the stars. The stars were so gorgeous and clear that high above the city lights, far from the pollution, and the air was fresh. We woke up in time to watch the sunrise. I will upload photos soon.

On one hand, I never ever, ever want to climb that mountain again, but on the other hand, I want to go back and see all the cool things that I missed this time around. There is a small community that lived on the mountain with in the shops set up by venders, temples and amongst the ruins. I met two Chinese high school students who said that talking to me was their first experience ever talking with a foreigner. First contact! That was really interesting. I could have spent a few days on that mountain, but unfortunately we had to race back down to catch a train for Qingdao.

About Qingdao: Qingdao was AMAZING! If I can save up $2000 by August next year I'm going back to China, specifically Qingdao. A roundtrip plane ticket costs a little over $1000, but the cost of living's so cheap that another $1000 could easily last you a week or two depending on what you're doing.

Well, Qingdao reminds me a lot of Madison and Milwaukee. A lot of Germans settled here back in the day, so there's a lot of German architecture. It even has some weird interestions like Madison on which are German style houses. Of course the Germans also brought their beer brewing techniques, and as a result, Qingdao became the home of Tsingtao beer. Qingdao is only a small city by Chinese standards. It was interesting... it had all the cool things that a larger city would have, but it kind of had a relaxed, small city atmosphere. The temperature's also really nice there. I mean, it's hot because it's summer, but everything gets cooled down by the sea breeze. Qingdao has some amazing sea food and some really nice beaches. Well... they're not as nice as American beaches, but for China they're pretty good. Apart from some sea weed and some tourist trash, the water was so clear you could see to the bottom, at least it was clear at the beach that I went to. We all walked a little further down the beach away from the main swimming area, just us four. Then Demi and I waded out into that clear water and started climbing some rocks. It was so cool. We had so much fun! And although we didn't do it, you can also rent jet skis, ATVs and take cruises around the Bay.

For the fourth of July, I wanted to go back to the beach, rent a grill and a tent and just hang out with some friends because as it turns out, we weren't the only group of classmates that came here. That never happened though, but the night we did have was still pretty fun. We all decided to go to a Mexican restaurant because that was the closest thing to American food that we could find (besides KFCs and McDonalds). The food was alright... it was close... but just not quite right in some ways... for example, the Spanish rice was a lot more like Chinese rice. After ther restaurant, we spent the rest of the night wandering a round town with some really nice British people we met. It was great!

So as a side story, there was this girl at the Mexican restaurant wearing a T-Shirt that said "Free Hugs." The Free Hugs thing is part of a social campaign where people give (as the slogan implies) free hugs to everyone so every one can feel loved. We all asked the girl for a free hug, and she was really confused. She had NO idea what that shirt meant until we explained it to her, hahahahaha~ She'll probably never wear it again, hahahah~

It was FAAAANtastic! Yep, yep, definitely coming back!

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