"Whose money can't buy happiness?" was our favorite saying on a shirt that we saw this weekend! We decided to get out of Weifang and go to Qingdao. Vera our student from last year and our great friend came to Weifang really early and then we took a train to Qingdao with Thomas, Katie, and Kayte. Qingdao is a beautiful coastal city looking out towards the Yellow Sea. Qindgao is known in China for its beer. Here is a little history piece from Wikipedia.
"In 1891 the Qing government decided to make the area a defense base against naval attack and eventually began to improve Tsingtao's(Qingdao) existing fortifications. This Chinese activity was observed and reported by German naval officials during a formal survey of Kiautschou Bay in May 1897.[4] After the Kiautschou Bay region was ceded to Germany in 1898, the German authorities soon turned the impoverished fishing village of Tsingtao into a strategically important port administered by the Imperial Department of the Navy (Reichsmarineamt) rather than the Imperial Colonial Office (Reichskolonialamt). The navy based their Far East Squadron here, allowing the ships to conduct operations throughout the Pacific. From January 1898 the marines of III. Seebatallion were based at Tsingtao. The German imperial government planned and built the first streets and early infrastructure of the city (still visible today), introduced electrification throughout, a sewer system and a safe drinking water supply. Commercial interests established the world-famous Tsingtao Brewery. German influence extended to other areas of Shandong Province, including the establishment of diverse commercial enterprises.
Before the outbreak of World War I the ships of the German naval forces under Admiral Count von Spee were located at central Pacific colonies on routine missions. The fleet then rendezvoused in the Marianas to plan a transit to Germany rather than be trapped in the Pacific by Allied fleets.[5]
After a minor British naval attack on the German colony in 1914, Japan occupied the city and the surrounding province during the Siege of Tsingtao after Japan's declaration of war on Germany in accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The failure of the Allied powers to restore Chinese rule to Shandong after the war triggered the May Fourth Movement.
Because of it's German architecture and it's large population of Korean ex-pats, Qingdao has a very unique atmosphere.
We played card games on the way there and tried to learn Chinese from Adam and Vera.Then when we first got there the boys stayed at the train station to get the tickets back home, and us girls went to get a hotel room. It was mid-autumn festival and during the October break so there were tons of people. I have become a lot more bold in asking for pictures of hairstyles and things, so when I saw a girl with a popular bag with the saying.."minutemen meatpuppepts descendents angst" I took a picture and a girl there was wearing a WE LOVE KATE shirt, so of course Katie, and Kate got a picture with her! We had a lot of fun. We played with little dogs, and laughed at little kids playing in a fountain. We got delicous cotton candy, and bought more cool things like jewelry and a sword(that made it through the scanners, and onto the train without a problem!!)
As we walked around the streets and went shopping in the markets I thought about how much I loved China, until that night when we crawled into our small rock hard bed, (kayte and vera shared a bed) I think they were twin size mattresses, it felt like people were talking, laughing, and coughing up a lung in our room, and then it smelt like someone was smoking next to us in our little bed. The hotel room is windowless (as most of them are but a definite fire-code violation in the U.S,)with dirty carpets and a tiny bathroom(but very nice compared to some other hotels we have stayed at). Only then did I wish I was back in the comforts of home, or atleast Weifang. Next time we are bringing our foam pad from our bed! The next day we went back to the market and did some more shopping, we went to Qingdao University and then walked along the beach. We had a great time. We are going to Beijing this next weekend, so hopefully it will be just as fun and not as crazy as last year!
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1 comment:
Dantz i love your post. Its sounds like a beautiful place, thanks for taking us there for a minute. Love ya Mom
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