Tony left Beijing to return to Shanghai, only to be shipped out on a business trip the next morning. Matthew and I continued our journey to Qingdao. Qingdao is a seaside city, located in the southeast part of the Shangdong province. Across the Yellow Sea is Korea and Japan. Qingdao is also the home of the beer- Tsingtao where it is manufactured. We arrived in Qingdao, early Tuesday evening. Liza picked us up and we went straight to dinner. We met with Bill, Brian and Tammy. Matthew was very excited to see Brian again. They haven't seen each other in two years. It's amazing how time quickly passes. Tammy is a very precocious 4 year old. Let's just say she was quite smitten with Matthew. She spent the entire dinner following him around and insisting on holding his hand.We checked into the hotel and it wasn't exactly what we expected. I should have known something was wrong when we turned the lights on, the room was very dark. Let me explain, I saw the ad on the internet and it showed a completely different hotel. Unfortunately, it was too late to find anything for the night, so Matthew and I had to tough it out.
Wednesday
Ok- we had a bad night at the hotel. The walls were paper thin, there was a hole in the window and all the street noises came in and there was a rather strange odor emitting from the bathroom. At first daylight, I looked at the carpet and....it was absolutely filthy. Yes- I packed everything up and we checked out. Luckily, we found a room at the Best Western and it's a "5" star hotel. In comparison to where we stayed the night before, the Best Western was like staying at the Plaza Hotel. Matthew and I were a lot happier with our new accomodations. We left the hotel and found the weather to be quite foggy and dreary. We went over to the Qingdao Regatta Center where the Olympic Regatta Races will be held next year. It's quite a beautiful place. Originally, it was the site where boats were built. The government relocated the boat builders to a different location and converted the area into the regatta center. Though the weather wasn't cooperating, we did get a good view of the area.
We continued our tour at Laoshan. Laoshan soars 1133 meters above sea level and is the highest mountain along the Chinese coastline.The mountains are breathtakingly beautiful. It was as if a picture had been painted in the background. The mineral water from Laoshan is used to make the Tsingtao beer. Laoshan is also home to a famous monastery with an active Taoist community. It has many ancient temples, monastaries and at it's height, there were 72 nunneries in total. We toured the area and saw many Taoist monks, a 1000 year old cypress tree, camellia and azalea trees that were over 500 years old. We did the usual tourist things...rubbing the rock for good luck, praying to the Gods for good health and fortune and most of all, feeling the spirit that lives in Laoshan.
Thursday
We started our tour at St. Michael's Cathederal. St. Michael's is a Roman Catholic church built in 1934 by German architects. When you stand in front of this building, you do not feel as if you are in China. You feel like you're in Germany. St. Michael's church was heavily damaged during the Cultural Revolution. At that time, many Buddhist temples were destroyed. The parishioners of St. Michael's removed the twin crosses from the peaks and protected them by burying it. The crosses were later recovered and reaffixed. The church had gone through a complete renovation and was reopened in 1981.
We continued onto Badaguan where a lot of the European style mansions and villas are situated. For thirty three years, up until 1949, Qingdao was a colony of Germany and Japan. It was home to a large expatriate community consisting of Russians, Germans, Greeks, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Swiss, Japanese, Americans and Koreans. The old European style homes makes the atmosphere of Qingdao quite unique. I fell in love with a home overlooking the Number 2 Beach. Of course, the home isn't for sale and is quite expensive anyway. It was quite cold that day, but I can imagine how beautiful it is during the summer. Matthew and I would like to return when the weather is more favorable for a long weekend at the beach in Qingdao.
We ended our stay at Qingdao with a farewell dinner with Bill, Liza and the kids. Matthew will miss Brian very much. He'll miss Tammy too....though he won't admit it. I think deep down inside, Matthew was quite flattered to have Tammy swooning over him. We'll see how she feels about him 10 years from now.
