09.12.08
Posted in Travel Log at 10:33 pm by Benjamin Ross
 |
| The final leg of my Shandong excursion was a stop in Qingdao. |
 |
| Due to its clean air, modernity, and relatively modest population, Qingdao is usually grouped with Dalian and Xiamen as the most livable cities in China. |
 |
| Now that I have visited all three, I would probably say Qingdao is my favorite. |
 |
| Even more than the clean air, what separates Qingdao (as well as Dalian and Xiamen) from other Chinese cities is the rare combination of modern amenities such as those found in a city like Shanghai or Shenzhen, but without the mobs of people. |
 |
| There aren’t many cities in China where you can see a scene like this. |
 |
| Qingdao, (like Dalian and Xiamen) also benefits from favorable geography. As a peninsula which juts out into the water, any toxants in the air get easily whisked out to sea. |
 |
| Thus skies remain nice and blue most of the year. |
 |
| Qingdao also has the most scenic beach promenade I have ever seen in China. |
 |
| I spent nearly an entire day walking along the beach. |
 |
| I’ll let the pics do more of the talking… |
 |
| Qingdao is known for its seafood, and at the end of the afternoon, I stopped at this 大排档 (da4 pai2 dang1) to relax and refuel. |
 |
| A 大排档 is an outdoor, temporary, restaurant, which is usually set up under a tent and using a portable kitchen. A typical 大排档 will have tiny tables barely big enough for a 10-year old, discarded seashells and bones scattered on the floor, and crappy service…not the kind of place you want to take your suburbanite parents when they visit China. |
 |
| Here was my lunch, consisting of 京酱肉丝 (jing1 jiang4 rou4 si1), thick pork strips with onions, which are then wrapped in a tofu pancake (left). Along with my 京酱肉丝, I had a pitcher of draft Qingdao (Tsingtao) beer and two pieces of mantou (right). Shandong as a whole probably has one of the lowest per capita rice consumption rates in China. Qingdao locals seemed to prefer mantou is their staple. I did not see too many flour tortillas as I had in Qufu. |
 |
| Right next to the beach, near the train station, is an underground mall. I remember thinking that it seemed awfully close to the ocean to build tunnels underground. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had this concern. |
 |
| Qingdao at one point was a colony of Germany, and several neighborhoods still bear the mark of the colonial architecture. |
 |
| However, the biggest mark Germany left on Qingdao was beer-related. Throughout history, colonial powers would often build roads, factories, and other forms of public infrastructure in their new lands. For the Germans, they built breweries. |
 |
| Today, the Qingdao brewery is the largest and most famous brewery in China. It is located on Qingdao’s famous 啤酒节 (pi2 jiu2 jie1, “Beer Street”) seen above. |
 |
| The main attraction to Beer Street (other than the brewery and the museum) are the various tented restaurants lining the street. I spent the evening out with China Law Blog’s Steve Dickinson and his wife Sarah, sampling Qingdao’s renowned beer and seafood. |
 |
| Since I first came to China, I have always enjoyed Qingdao beer. In addition to Qingdao, nearly every province has its own local brew. Invariably however, it all tastes pretty much tastes the same. The beauty of actually going to Qingdao Beer Street is that you can sample beers which are not available anywhere else in China. The dark beer pictured here (黑啤, hei1 pi2) is what I would probably consider a porter, by leaps and bounds the best tasting Chinese beer I have ever had. The one on the left is an unfiltered version of the Qingdao lager called 原浆 (yuan2 jiang4). In addition to these, we also polished off a pitcher of Qingdao Green Beer (绿啤 lv4 pi2). The waitress explained to us how it was made, and all I could catch was that it was made from some kind of plant. It looked like Mountain Dew, and tasted fantastic. |
 |
| Qingdao’s main pedestrian street |
 |
| The Germans also decided to build a Catholic church in Qingdao. Of course, out of convenience it’s not located too far from Beer Street. |
 |
| more colonial architecture |
 |
| Generally speaking, I think the whole Chinglish thing is a little bit played out, but I couldn’t hold back on this one. |
 |
| Qingdao is quite hilly…one of the reasons there are very few bicycles. |
 |
| a quick look at the CBD |
 |
| Upon my departure (I originally came from Jinan on a bus), I found that Qingdao may have the single most impressive train station I have ever seen in the Middle Kingdom. |
 |
| The floors at Qingdao’s Railway station are probably cleaner than most tables in other Chinese train stations. |
 |
| Where are all the crowds? Am I still in China? |
 |
| And now with the new 动车组 (I have no idea how to translate this) trains, you can make it back to Beijing in just under six hours. Final verdict: Qingdao rocks! Possibly now one of my all-time favorite Chinese cities…at very least, top 3. |
Permalink
/* line below was changed, used to be wp-comments-post.php */
Leslie
said,
September 13, 2008 at 12:31 am
Hi Ben,
I love these pictures! They bring back such memories, from when I visited Qingdao in 2006. It is also one of my favorite cities in China.
Enjoy the rest of your trip,
Leslie
Lucy
said,
September 13, 2008 at 1:02 am
我没有去过青岛，你的照片和简介很好，keep up the good work! (patting on the back)
这里import的青岛啤酒和以前在中国喝的不一样。不知道是fake，还是不同口味，还是水质变了。所以我们就改喝Canaidan beer啦。
Look forward to more pictures of your trip.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
September 13, 2008 at 10:19 am
Lucy, I noticed the Tsingtao beer in Hong Kong also tastes quite different from what we get on the Mainland. I looked at the bottle and noticed it was 5% alcohol. That little bit extra ethanol on its own would alter the flavour, ethanol being a flavour enhancer- and the HK brews had noticeably more flavour than the Mainland version.
Susan
said,
September 16, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Hi Ben! I have read your blog for a while, but never commented. I’m glad you liked Qingdao so much. I studied Chinese there for two summers in a row and it’s still my favorite Chinese city. Your pictures bring back so many memories–looks like you really hit all the high points in your visit!
Little Tiger
said,
September 21, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Hi Ben,
Just stumbled upon your blog. Those pictures of Qingdao look great, I must plan a trip.
Your have a great blogging style, keep up the good work!
Steven
said,
January 18, 2010 at 7:34 am
These pics are really nice, Qingdao is looking good ~!
I really love Qingdao, it is like a second hometown for me, and I know how lucky I am to live there.
If you are interested to find out more about what is happening in Qingdao, please check out a new site founded by myself and a friend here, link to http://www.qingdaonese.com.