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Published: August 6th 2009
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This weekend, I took a trip by myself up to the seaside city of Qingdao, located in the northeastern peninsular province of Shandong. Once under German rule, the European influence in Qingdao is still apparent in many of the older houses and mansions around the city. More recently, Qingdao has become a popular destination for local tourists because of its many bathing beaches. I arrived on Friday afternoon and found that my hostel was right across the street from the main swimming beach. I spent most of the first day exploring the beach and coastline in my near vicinity. The main beach was crowded with hundreds of people relaxing, swimming, or playing games such as badminton or volleyball. Renting jetskis and boats is also a popular activity. Most of the men wear a short tight bathing suit that resembles a Speedo, while two pieces were common among the women. In between the beaches are stretches of rugged and rocky shore that reminded me a little bit of northern California. I walked up and down the winding pathway that stretched along the coastline for miles in each direction. It didn’t take me long to figure out that not many foreigners come here.
I didn’t see anyone besides native Chinese people on the streets and there were hardly any Western style restaurants around. Luckily, the people at my hostel spoke good English and I ended up with Scottish roomates, so that was a big help. There was also a really trendy bar/café at the bottom of the hostel that catered to English speaking people. I went to the bar on Friday night and it looked as if they had rounded up every Western person in the city and brought them there. Mostly Europeans were inside, I didn’t see many Americans. There was also a foreign jazz band playing inside. The music was pretty good, so I stayed for a while before going up to bed.
The transportation in Qingdao was not too great - there was no metro, and the buses were hard to use for non-Chinese speaking people. But Qingdao is the type of city that is best seen on foot anyway, and most of the sites were within walking distance for me. On Saturday morning, I took a taxi to the western side of the city to see the famous St. Michael’s Church, which had been erected in the early
twentieth century by German settlers. When I first got out of the taxi, I was sure that I had been let off at the wrong place. I was expecting to see some signs to indicate that I was in a historic colonial district, but instead I found myself surrounded by dirty old dwellings and dusty roads similar to the Old City in Shanghai. My map wasn’t detailed enough to help me navigate the streets, and nobody around looked like they could speak even a little bit of English, so it took me a while to stumble upon the church, but I finally found it. It was a pretty odd site seeing a massive European style church with towering spires in the middle of a bunch of traditional Chinese buildings. From St. Michael’s Church, I headed south to the shore along Zhongshan Road, one of the city’s main commercial districts. I took a walk down Zhanqiao Pier, which is a narrow walkway that stretches more than a quarter of a mile into the Yellow Sea. The pier usually offers a nice view of the developing Qingdao skyline, but by midday a thick fog had rolled in, so the buildings were mostly
obscured. In the afternoon, I walked over to the Badaguan Scenic area, which is noteworthy for its many German houses. I also explored the coast here, which features steep cliffs and rocks that protrude up from the shallow shoreline waters.
On Sunday morning, I hiked up to the top of Little Fish Mountain Pagoda to get a view from one of the highest points in the city. Looking out from the pagoda, I could make out the diverse mix of beaches and hilly landscape that lined the ocean. The German influence in the surrounding architecture was also unmistakable, with characteristic bright red roofs covering most of the buildings. Later, I walked back down to the Zhanqiao Pier. It was a lot clearer out than the previous day, so I got a good look at the futuristic skyline across the bay. The pier was crowded with lots of tourists, and I got asked a few times to pose in people’s pictures. In the afternoon, I caught a bus for the hour ride back to the airport. I ended up spending a few extra hours waiting for my flight due to weather delays, but I made it back to Shanghai alright.
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