Up near the Yellow Sea

---

Thur 30 July - Back in Xian, the next morning we explored other hostels (as there was no availability at the Han Tang, attempted to copy our photos to USB and did some laundry. After booking a downstairs dorm at the Shuyuan hostel - a sweatbox but cheap and only for one night, we went shopping for food and to collect our laundry from the Han Tang (and also Bine’s shoes - someone forgot to pack ‘em!). It was a hot and sticky day so rather then search for dinner out we had beer and pizza (again) at the Shuyuan then went for our free cold ones in the bar where we met some local students who wanted to practice their English.

Fri 31 July - Following a surprisingly restful night we attempted to obtain some train tickets to Qingdao - no way Jose, booked up for the next week plus! So, we settled on flying (although it does make your arms ache - sorry, the old ones are the best) and spent a couple of hours organising tickets and accommodation in Qingdao before switching rooms to an air-conditioned one. We grabbed some gidan chaofan for lunch at a restaurant around the corner and then sat around waiting for the rain to stop. When the rain did bait in the early evening we ate al fresco at our favourite shao kao ‘restaurant’ before a stroll outside the city walls which ended rather abruptly as our flight tickets were being delivered to the hostel.

Sat 1 August - After a broken night’s sleep due to other travelers going to bed in the middle of the night, we had a hostel breakfast then collected laundry and packed our rucksacks ready to leave after tea. It was another rainy one so we stayed indoors. I joined couchsurfing.org and sent a few messages with a view to meeting up with other ‘surfers in Qingdao. Lunch was daizou fried rice before taking it easy in the pm. It stopped raining eventually so we took some portraits we’ had done to the post office and sent them home (they said it would take 2-3 months to reach the UK!). On our return we had a quick bite to eat then packed our kit and caught the airport shuttle from the Melody Hotel. 40 minutes later we were back in the airport lounge, tucking into our pot noodles whilst waiting to board. The tannoy then informed us of a half-hour delay due to the weather - it wasn’t that bad. Eventually we settled on board the 50-seater about 11pm and touched down, after an uneventful flight, in Qingdao on the east coast. Tiredly we found a taxi (21¥) to deliver us to the Big Brother Guest House and fell into bed.

Sun 2 August - Surfacing at around 10.30ish, we did some much needed washing - bodies and clothes, before heading out for food. Breakfast, or more appropriately brunch, consisted of chao mien, spicy sandwiches and draft Tsingtao! Then being well-prepared travelers we spent until teatime arranging the return to Xi’an and accommodation for the coming days on the east coast. It was then time to sample beach life so we strolled on down to the ‘front’ and Bine dipped her toes etc. in the Yellow sea. The next job was to see if we could arrange to meet a fellow couchsurfer. Without success, we made some more Tsingtao (and noodles) disappear before returning to the promenade to peruse the myriad stalls selling everything from char-grilled squid to mini, candle-powered hot air balloons. At the far end one brave soul was still swimming in the sea. He was searching for sea life delicacies with a torch and fins and eventually wandered off into the night with half a bagful of unknown marine creatures.

Mon 3 August - Looking forward to a similar zaofan to yesterday we showered around 9am and strode purposefully to the stall - no luck, it was shut! We grabbed a ‘pastie’ and then sat down to plan our itinerary. At 11ish we were en route to the Tsingtao Beer Museum up town. It was a sweltering hike, punctuated with a stop at Kai Yue youth hostel but we knew there was certain relief to come…hehe. As promised on our tickets, after an interesting tour, we received a free beer and a packet of nuts.

About half way back we momentarily stopped outside a restaurant to check the map when a Chinese man appeared at my side. Despite the language barrier, he was obviously trying to help us (despite the fact we knew roughly where we were anyway). After fetching a friend from inside the restaurant we still couldn’t convince him we didn’t need help. The next time he appeared it was with a couple of glasses and a bottle of beer which we duly drank. He then gestured for us to enter the restaurant - well we were hungry after all, so went in. He immediately offered us a free local dish then called an English-speaking friend to communicate better with us. After a brief conversation with “Tony” we ordered more food and watched TV. A further two phone conversations with Tony later, we were told that all our food was free, compliments of him. Our host told us via an internet translation site that Tony was on his way. Ten minutes later a young, cool dude appeared; Tony and so we chatted for a while said we would keep in touch then parted to continue our walk back.

After a few wrong turns (Bine’s fault!) we found the road to XiaoQingdao (Little Qingdao), a small island with a lighthouse connected to the mainland by a pier. We spent a relaxing hour or so there before returning to the promenade side of the bay for an al fresco Big Mac and Tsingtao supper. Then just for good measure we finished off with an ice cream from a German-speaking zhong guo ren.

Tue 4 August - 7.30 saw us up and waiting for a bus to Lao Shan, a mountain range just outside the city. An hour later and we arrived at the bus terminus - Wu Kou and despite a plethora of over-zealous taxi drivers offering lifts we opted to walk - how far we didn’t know. As it turned out we hiked for 5-6 km to the park entrance. 70¥ each and we were in and taking a shady rest with hua sheng and shui (that’s peanuts and water to you) in preparation for more walking finished with a short lift to the base of Lao Shan. The start was encouraging: lots of steep steps but there was much greenery and lakes to take your mind off the struggle. If you preferred you could be carried up on a seat attached to two long bamboo poles by a couple of sweaty Chinese chaps for 40¥ - we walked. To help soothe us we stepped away from the beaten track and dangled our feet into a cool pool. Idly reclining in the dappled sunlight, ‘Dragonflies’ buzzing around us and listening to the gentle trickle of water… ooh, it was beautiful.
After the guide book build-up the ‘top’ of the mountain seemed an anticlimax so after waving to people in the cable car we headed back to the road.

Now, despite the guide book telling us bus 304 would take us back to Wu Kou everyone else disagreed. So a few minutes of hard bargaining we enjoyed a taxi ride back (30¥). As there was time to kill before the bus we stripped to our underwear and took a dip in the briny to cool off in the surf before being sun-dried. We’d seen it before but it still appeared preposterous. On the beach, in the middle of all the holidaymakers, promotional wedding photographs were being taken - white tux, fake grand piano and all!

Once back in Qingdao town we gravitated (honest) to our favourite watering hole for Tsingtao at 15p a pint and spicy snacks. The evening was a short stroll around the streets of Qingdao (The character 青 (qīng) in Chinese means "green" or "lush", while the character 岛 (dǎo) means "island") topped off with an ice cream before bed.

Wed 5 August - Bine (very kindly) ventured out for breakfast whilst I showered and waited for a dohnuty-thing and a yogurt drink. We then went on a mission to find evidence of the German occupation, we didn’t find much and ended up having barbequed aubergine, chicken and tofu accompanied by (yes, you’ve guessed it) Tsingtao draft for lunch, in part recompense. Due to rain and lethargy we returned to the hostel for the remainder of the day - reading and internetting. When the rain baited around 8pmish we hunted for a guidebook restaurant but weren’t enthralled when we arrived so found another that sold gong bao gi ding! (spicy chicken and peanuts). After filling up we allowed ourselves a MacDonald’s ice cream - just as a treat you understand.

Thur 6 August - What a bloody night! - music and general noise until 2ish, mozzys and a hot, sticky room (Bine wouldn’t let me put the a/c on!). I was then awoken at 6 by a guy from downstairs trying to get-off with a girl in our attic room.

We showered, ate then walked to the qi che zhan (bus station) and boarded a rather posh bus to Yantai (136¥). Strangely we were the only two passengers. As I thought, a half hour later, we switched to another bus with only two empty seats - how surprising and continued the three hour journey. We left the bus and tramped the 20 minutes to the ferry terminal, hassled on the way by ticket touts, bought our 264¥ pp tickets and settled in the departure lounge and waited with our pot noodles. The ferry was actually a catamaran when it arrived. The 3 and a half hour, stuffy trip included the obligatory army movie to keep the ‘troops’ quiet. We hit Dalian at 5.30 and caught bus 13 from the port to a small bus station near the train station. Following guide book and local advice we taxied (8¥) to our hotel, the Jinjiang Inn (289¥ for double room), and then only ventured across the street for dinner before settling to sleep in a very comfortable, air conditioned suite.

Fri 7 August - No alarm today, we eventually surfaced at 10. It was my turn to nip out for fruit, etc for breakfast before catching buses (2 & 13) back to the port to sort return ferry tickets. We decided on a night crossing to save on accommodation costs and so we could fit in a tour in Yantai on the return leg. After trying to find a cheap hotel with space with no luck we proceeded to the Russian quarter. Disappointed with a minimum of (neglected) buildings and a cheap market, we bought ice lollies and strolled to Zhongshan Square - the official centre of town. There we relaxed in the mini park on the main roundabout and saw a dog with a pink tail and a rather irate man who was cycling around attempting to persuade the pigeons to fly away, for some reason he wasn’t best pleased with people feeding them. After this we wandered around the many shops in the underground market which is actually an extension of the subway before bussing back to grab a chicken kebab and beer for me.

Sat 8 August - Bine went for zaofan this morning then we got the #2 bus to Tiger Beach. We struggled to find the actual beach, it appeared to be ‘inside’ a sort of holiday park so we decided to walk to the next beach instead. We saw Ship 104 (an ex-youth hostel) and then had a snack of biscuits and fruit. Our next stop was at a beach at the foot of quite a few steps. We descended and were charged yi quai (10p) but after two minutes we left: the place was a cramped, rubbish-strewn, rocky, sliver of coastline, not even worth 10p. We did find another a hot and sticky beach 7km walk away, not brilliant but we did swim in the shallow, scummy water of the Sea of Bohai. At this point we knew we had missed the last bus back to Tiger bay but the adjacent town area looked quite near so as we were hungry we ambled towards civilization. Bine spotted a #5 bus which we thought might do us - it did and we were back at ‘base’ 15 minutes later ordering a snack of chicken kebab and char-grilled squid, oh and beer. We then got cleaned up and tootled round the corner to a lonely restaurant for dinner. After this we wandered up the main street (where Bine was nearly run over by a crazy scooter rider) to see the sights, I grabbed a pi jiu then we caught Travelogue (Chinese travel program in English) on CCTV9.

Sun 9 August - We got up late today, I fetched some bread and we made sandwiches for breakfast with some salad we’d bought yesterday. After checking out but leaving our gear at the hotel, we took a bus to a busy Fujiazhuang beach, heaving with tourists (many Russian) and wandered around eventually finding a small sea lion reserve. After photographing them at feeding time we caught the bus back into town. We meandered, checking places out to eat later and stumbled on a Coca-cola promotion. Each person received a free bottle Coke but it seemed you had to read the label, listen to the drink fizzing and smell it before you drank. Strange but true. We decided we could put up with that if it was free so joined the queue. When they saw us they just gave us the Cokes without the preamble - sorted. Free drinks and some stage entertainment later we found a rock band playing close by. Unfortunately we only caught one number before they packed up so we visited the underground market again to get T shirts with mis-spelled logos before returning to the hotel to get out gear.

After our cheese fix at Pizza Hut it was bus 13 to the port and a sticky pause until boarding the ferry (it was a ferry this time) at 9.30. It wasn’t actually due to leave until 10.30 and during the wait Bine discovered a queue. The deal was, if you paid 3¥ pp (30p) you were entitled to a fast-track boarding. We were in like Flynn and were soon on the short shuttle bus ride to our craft where we were able to find our seats and settle before the throng arrived.

Shortly after getting underway the scene resembled a refugee boat: there were bodies strewn across three seats, on the floor on newspapers and old maps and even some, who obviously knew the real deal and had booked it especially, sleeping on mattresses in the isles and other spare areas. After realizing I would not be able to sleep on my moulded, hard plastic seat, I ‘acquired’ some newspaper, borrowed Bine’s rucksack and bedded down just outside the ladies toilets next to a Chinese chap. Surprisingly, I managed 3 hours sleep and just dozed until we docked at 5am. The sun was just rising. Everyone alighted and the taxi touts descended. The competition nearly caused fisticuffs between two taxi drivers, it was only others keeping them apart that prevented it.

Mon 10 August - After discovering the old railway station (where we needed to stow our gear for a few hours) was too far away, we headed for the bus station where we had arrived a few days before. Luckily it had a baggage store (2¥ per hour). We rested and snacked on fruit and biscuits before walking eastwards on the shadiest side of the street to the Changyu wine museum. Despite its lofty admission fee of 50¥ pp, it didn’t live up to expectations. I’m no connoisseur but the wine we sampled was below par although we each did receive a complimentary miniature of the brandy they produce. Outside it was still tai re so we grabbed an ice lolly, caught bus 43 back to the station and got our return tickets (62¥ pp) to Qingdao. At 12.10 on the nose the bus departed Yantai but it wasn’t long before Bine voiced her unhappiness: they weren’t dishing out free strawberry flavoured wafers as they had on the outward journey - very poor. Three hours later we were dropped at the bus station, but it wasn’t the bus station we’d left from. Nowhere looked familiar so after consulting a couple of bystanders we walked around the corner and found a # 5 bus stop. The (trolley) bus arrived, we got on and it took us to its terminus - another bus station…mmm. During our usual fragmented discussion in Chinese, where neither party quite understands the other, we hopped back on another #5 going in the opposite direction. This one eventually took us to familiar territory, passed the Tsingtao museum and to within a five minute walk of the hostel. A much-needed shower later we were en route to our favourite draft Tsingtao outlet for a couple of pints and chao mien. After giving up on the idea of a trip to Carrefour, we wandered for our tea but were disappointed with the result:; tasteless fried rice and flat beer (11¥). It only took an ice cream to cheer us up before we hit the sack and slept like logs.

Tue 11 August - We set the alarm for this morning (shock, horror!) - 7.15 to get a visit to Carrefour in before catching the train to Xi’an. The main reason was to obtain an oven dish (they’re not big in China) but whilst there we found cheese and a few other little luxuries for our train journey. We boarded the huo che at midday and then set to creating our cheese salad sarnies. I then had a nap to pass the time before a pot noodle for tea. Lights out was 9.30 on this train so everyone had an early night.

Wed 12 August - After a fractious night I got up at 6ish and read until Bine surfaced at just after 8am. We polished off the bread rolls and our xi gua for breakfast then practiced our Putong hua until the train pulled in at just shy of 11. The usual #611 delivered us to the Han Tang hostel where we showered and checked our e-mails. We then walked to the south gate and hired a tandem to circumnavigate the city walls. You have 100 minutes to complete the 13.7 km which is quite doable if you don’t hang about - we had rests and photo stops and still had 15 minutes to spare. It was very hot so we cooled down a little with an ice lolly afterwards. At 6.30 we returned to the hostel and collected our free beers after getting cleaned up. Later we enjoyed a shao kao meal (including beer of course) at our usual outdoor eatery in the art quarter and then another ice cream (yeah, another!) on the walk home.

Thur 13 August - After a shower this morning we went for a western-style breakfast in the hostel. At 11.30 we trudged to the Shuyuan hostel to collect the gear we’d left there before Qingdao, repacked and caught a taxi (9¥) to the long-distance bus station for our 5-6 hour final leg home. A month had passed and our holiday had suddenly come to an end. Where did the time go………..

---