We had a 5am start which more or less fitted with my messed up sleep pattern. It was interesting to see the city so quiet, the main noise was the street cleaning machines with their gift card melodies. We hopped on the first metro of the morning out to the older main line station. To my delight, we were in first class. Not only that, it was an exclusive compartment in the nose of the train. We had this to ourselves for the first hour or so, but even when it was full it only had three other people. Free snacks, swanky toilet, I could so get used to this. At 300 km/h we sped once again through the familiar scenes of high rise developments.
Qingdao North station with its recent metro line gave us a modern welcome. We went for a brief walk around the waterfront near our hotel. Qingdao would have had a lot of development for the 2008 Olympic sailing events, but it's starting to crumble a bit now. However, it is about to host a security conference, so the whole city was getting a bit of a face lift. There was development and refurbishment wherever we turned.
My friend Ed had been living there for a few years and, reunited with him, we got a taxi to the German quarter for its interesting architecture and beach, plus more photos with excited locals. Heading back into the city, we had a filling dinner of squid ink dumplings, meatball soup and fish at a mall restaurant. Then it was on to a bar for beers that, shock, weren't listed on Untappd. Well, it was just called Citra.
My attempts at sleep were still not fully successful, but at least we had a later start. It was good to see a city off the main tourist trail that, realistically, we would not have visited if it wasn’t for visiting someone here. It also meant we were more or less the only non locals in any given area, so this meant even more stares. We started at a pier, and then attempted the naval museum and lighthouse peninsula, but both of these were closed as part of the city-wide renovation. We lucked out by finding a nearby restaurant that had both English staff and an English menu. I feasted on Abalone in oyster sauce with a big plate of fried rice.
We then walked along the coast through various parks and more disused Olympic areas that were still being kept pristine, and on to Zhongshan Park with its confusing autumnal tones. In the evening met Ed again who gave us a tour of his apartment and neighbourhood. His 32nd floor flat offered stunning views. Then we went up to Lican to Opera Brew, an amazing brew pub where we ate a feast of many delights and I had several of their beers. We only just caught the last metro home. It was bizarre seeing such a familiar face in an unfamiliar land, but as we spent most of our time eating and drinking it didn’t take long to adjust to our old routines.
The next day moved on to Nanjing, re-tracing almost our entire journey back the way we came, and checking in to our third Orange Select hotel. In the humid afternoon heat we went to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and surrounding park, before trying to find somewhere to eat. Relying on guide books for restaurant recommendations is not always successful, especially when it can be a struggle to work out what street you’re on. One of my least favourite things is to walk around starving, aimlessly in search of food based sanctuary. Eventually we accidentally stumbled across the place we were actually looking for. It was good combination of a picture menu on a wall that we could point to and big, filling bowls of noodle based meals. It even had a cat in a cage, which didn't sound too happy. After the now standard ice cream pick me up, we ended the day with a walk through Xuanwuhu Park and its various mini islands - one of which inexplicably had two McDonald's.
The temperature continued to rise, and I really regretted not bringing shorts. We started by visiting some gardens round the corner from our hotel, which were thankfully less busy and had more cats than previous places. After taking several wrong turns through an Olympic training centre, we found our way back to Zhongshan Park, serenaded by the pleasant screaming of cicadas in the trees. This was a great afternoon. One ticket got you into several beautiful attractions. We climbed Linggu Tower and visited several temples. I was starting to wonder where all the people were at, then we found them. The many, many steps to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was the busiest location yet, and gave us some hazy views of the city below.
All that climbing and walking and heat made me hungry and grumpy. Cheering up after a massive dumpling and some sweet bread, we prepared ourselves for visiting the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. A brutal yet vital experience. This, plus what I read in Korea last year, has really put my thoughts on Japan in a different context. On a lighter note, I was swarmed by around 100 local primary school kids on our exit, which was frankly terrifying.
We then tried to go on a walk atop the impressively huge city walls, but unfortunately we were too late. This was a shame, as that would have been a great additional to our visit. We made do with a stroll in their shadow around Xuanwu lake at dusk. Then we had another unsuccessful evening trying to find restaurants that may no longer exist. We stumbled across First Mate Steamed Seafood, which had no English speaking staff, so there were some awkward exchanges on translation apps. We accidentally ordered a full meal between us, including an octopus we had just seen looking forlorn in a tank before we sat down. Poor little guy. After that we walked along a street that was entirely shut down on one side for several blocks - possibly earmarked for demolition? It was an odd sight.
Nanjing was our third contrasting city in a row, and I really enjoyed it. There was almost too much to see in our short time there.
China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
Qingdao North station with its recent metro line gave us a modern welcome. We went for a brief walk around the waterfront near our hotel. Qingdao would have had a lot of development for the 2008 Olympic sailing events, but it's starting to crumble a bit now. However, it is about to host a security conference, so the whole city was getting a bit of a face lift. There was development and refurbishment wherever we turned.
My friend Ed had been living there for a few years and, reunited with him, we got a taxi to the German quarter for its interesting architecture and beach, plus more photos with excited locals. Heading back into the city, we had a filling dinner of squid ink dumplings, meatball soup and fish at a mall restaurant. Then it was on to a bar for beers that, shock, weren't listed on Untappd. Well, it was just called Citra.
My attempts at sleep were still not fully successful, but at least we had a later start. It was good to see a city off the main tourist trail that, realistically, we would not have visited if it wasn’t for visiting someone here. It also meant we were more or less the only non locals in any given area, so this meant even more stares. We started at a pier, and then attempted the naval museum and lighthouse peninsula, but both of these were closed as part of the city-wide renovation. We lucked out by finding a nearby restaurant that had both English staff and an English menu. I feasted on Abalone in oyster sauce with a big plate of fried rice.
We then walked along the coast through various parks and more disused Olympic areas that were still being kept pristine, and on to Zhongshan Park with its confusing autumnal tones. In the evening met Ed again who gave us a tour of his apartment and neighbourhood. His 32nd floor flat offered stunning views. Then we went up to Lican to Opera Brew, an amazing brew pub where we ate a feast of many delights and I had several of their beers. We only just caught the last metro home. It was bizarre seeing such a familiar face in an unfamiliar land, but as we spent most of our time eating and drinking it didn’t take long to adjust to our old routines.
The next day moved on to Nanjing, re-tracing almost our entire journey back the way we came, and checking in to our third Orange Select hotel. In the humid afternoon heat we went to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and surrounding park, before trying to find somewhere to eat. Relying on guide books for restaurant recommendations is not always successful, especially when it can be a struggle to work out what street you’re on. One of my least favourite things is to walk around starving, aimlessly in search of food based sanctuary. Eventually we accidentally stumbled across the place we were actually looking for. It was good combination of a picture menu on a wall that we could point to and big, filling bowls of noodle based meals. It even had a cat in a cage, which didn't sound too happy. After the now standard ice cream pick me up, we ended the day with a walk through Xuanwuhu Park and its various mini islands - one of which inexplicably had two McDonald's.
The temperature continued to rise, and I really regretted not bringing shorts. We started by visiting some gardens round the corner from our hotel, which were thankfully less busy and had more cats than previous places. After taking several wrong turns through an Olympic training centre, we found our way back to Zhongshan Park, serenaded by the pleasant screaming of cicadas in the trees. This was a great afternoon. One ticket got you into several beautiful attractions. We climbed Linggu Tower and visited several temples. I was starting to wonder where all the people were at, then we found them. The many, many steps to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was the busiest location yet, and gave us some hazy views of the city below.
All that climbing and walking and heat made me hungry and grumpy. Cheering up after a massive dumpling and some sweet bread, we prepared ourselves for visiting the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. A brutal yet vital experience. This, plus what I read in Korea last year, has really put my thoughts on Japan in a different context. On a lighter note, I was swarmed by around 100 local primary school kids on our exit, which was frankly terrifying.
We then tried to go on a walk atop the impressively huge city walls, but unfortunately we were too late. This was a shame, as that would have been a great additional to our visit. We made do with a stroll in their shadow around Xuanwu lake at dusk. Then we had another unsuccessful evening trying to find restaurants that may no longer exist. We stumbled across First Mate Steamed Seafood, which had no English speaking staff, so there were some awkward exchanges on translation apps. We accidentally ordered a full meal between us, including an octopus we had just seen looking forlorn in a tank before we sat down. Poor little guy. After that we walked along a street that was entirely shut down on one side for several blocks - possibly earmarked for demolition? It was an odd sight.
Nanjing was our third contrasting city in a row, and I really enjoyed it. There was almost too much to see in our short time there.
China Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
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