Blogs from Qingdao, Shandong, China, Asia - page 7

Seat Number: 63hao, car 14 Price of ticket: 281 RMB (40USD) Money saved by no sleepers being available: 200 RMB Hours on Train: 42 Noodle Pots eaten: 1 Pages of Book read: 210 Games of Du Di Zhu: 25 Guazi eaten: 263 Provinces crossed: 6 Friends made: 132.7 Being the coolest guy on the train: PRICELESS Over a year ago (I love saying that) towards the beginning of my travels, I had the extreme pleasure of inebrirating myself along with millions of Germans at the world largest beer festival, Oktoberfest, in Munich. Because of this, almost exactly one year on, I was determined to make it to the the largest beer festival in the eastern world, the Qingdao international beer festival, if it was at all possible. fortunately, the price of flying was far too dear. ... read more

Our next destination was a good old fashioned, traditional holiday destination. We were headed for the coastal town of Qingdao, which is famed for three things; it plays host to a number of China’s best beaches (for those of you who love watching sailing on TV{who doesn’t?} the Olympic sailing is taking place here), it was formerly inhabited by German’s and finally and most importantly, it is home to Tsingtao, the largest brewery in China. We arrived at the nearby train station and realised that due to China’s strange train ticketing policies (you can’t get a return leg ticket until you arrive at that place) that we were unable to get back to Changzhou until the Tuesday, thereby lengthening our stay by a day and giving us Monday off school. Bonus!! We now knew that we ... read more

From the Shanghai area my plan was to travel north to Shandong province, then head east to Xian ( the pottery soldiers) and wiggle my way north - with some important stops along the way - to Beijing, the final leg. Around the first of May is a humungous holiday in China, when half of China moves one way and the other half the other. I am a firm believer in not getting entangled in these events as they can be nightmares as far as finding places to stay and reservations on transportation. So, my goal was to see a couple of places in Shandong province, ending up in Qingdao (remember, ch/ts, beer), where I would wait out the holidays. This year the holiday (Mazu's Birthday, I think - she is goddess of the sea) fell ... read more

This morning we took the bullet train from Beijing to Qingdao. The ride took 6 hours and would have taken 11 by regular train, so I didn't complain. I was really jet-lagged and tired on this ride so I didn't snap as many pictures as I would have liked but I still got a few of the countryside. I had my camera locked up in my bag at the station so I didn't get any pictures of Beijing station either but definitely will when I go back in August. The train station looked just like it did in the 80s when Mosheng de Pengyou was filmed so I was pretty excited. We also our first children taking poops on the sidewalk outside. In China, little kids don't have a bottom in their pants until they're potty ... read more

China has a history of being forced to conceed certain areas of its land to colonial powers. Although many may be aware of British, French, and Japanese territories, I was suprised to learn that the Germans had a concession of land as well. Qindao is located on the East coast of China on the Yellow Sea across from Korea. It is a strategic location and is China's 4th largest port. Germany invaded the town in 1898 and established a naval port after 2 of their missionaries were murdered. They didn't hold it for long though. In 1914, the Japanese took over after a successful joint attack with the British (they were allies back then) and the peace treaties for WWI kept it in Japenese possession, which the Chinese were not too happy with. In 1922 the ... read more