Hello from Qingdao, Summary of Laoshan

I arrived late last night (24 ish hours ago, Saturday night) in Qingdao, which is located on a peninsula about halfway between Shanghai and Beijing.  I will be here until Wednesday

On Friday, we went back to the fabric market to pick up our purchases.  I picked up my suit, shirt, and two pairs of pants, and everything fits perfectly.  From here, we went to an Indian Buffet restaurant, "Punjabi," where we sat and ate for probably three hours.  Very delicious food.  I left overly stuffed.  

Saturday night, the plane left for Qingdao.  We had to wait a long time to check in, and then no food was available after this, when we thought there would be plenty of options in the terminal.  We entered the flight hungry and tired, but I brought snacks, so I was less hungry than my friend Andrew.  I spent most of the flight talking with the gentleman sitting next to me.  He was from Qingdao traveling to Shanghai on business and we had a very good conversation, although I was too tired to remember specifics.  I believe we talked about some economics, and different places in both China and America.

We finally arrived in Qingdao and came to the hotel.  It says it is a four star hotel; in reality, it is not even close.  However, the room is very clean, so I cannot complain too much.  Here is the view from the window:

We quickly went to bed because we had to be up and out early in the mornings to visit:

Laoshan Mountains

Qingdao is very close to the Laoshan scenic mountain area famous for mountains, beaches, and growing tea leaves.  The views were great, and it also produced a couple crazyish stories.

We woke up at 7 AM because the mountains are supposed to be most beautiful with fog in the morning.  We first went shopping for food, and then took a first bus to the front of Qingdao University, where we waited, and waited, and waited until finally the right bus came to take us to Laoshan.  The bus was packed beyond anything I have seen; a peak Bursley-Bates crowd with probably 20% more people stuffed together per square meter of space.  We took our positions near the door, and I held onto a bar so that I could be sure not to fall out.  Little did I realize that the door would come to open directly onto my hand, trapping my hand between the door and the side of the bus.  Panic ensued in my brain, and I managed to wiggle my wrist and hand free with only a small scratch.  After that stop, I briskly, perhaps rudely although by American standards, pushed through the crowd on the bus to a position more on the inside.  It was a very long and bumpy bus ride.  Not fun at all.  This was all okay with me in the end because the day was filled with views like this:

We finally arrived at a parking lot where we were supposed to purchase tickets to the park and to the bus to get to the bus.  Instead, we opted to do a local tour, where the local would purchase tickets at a discount, and drive us to the more local favorite destinations.  Note: there were four of us in the group: me, my roommate Erik, our friend Andrew, and Erik’s friend who is a native of Qingdao.  The tour took us to a few destinations, including a tea tasting while the guide “purchased” our tickets. 

Finally we arrived at the base of the mountain of the park and began to hike up in a large group with one guide, who was different from our driver.  We arrived at one scenic lookout spot very shortly, probably 5-10 minutes into the hike.  People stopped to take a lot of pictures, especially on top of a couple of different giant boulders.  One of the park rangers, dressed more like a policeman came by, which is normal since there is a lot of security in China.  Then another one came, and began talking (all in Chinese, of course) to our guide.

All of the drivers for the group, probably 4-5, did not purchase tickets for us and were trying to sneak us into the park.  We were caught, and as the two rangers were talking to the guide, everyone began descending the mountain. We figured safety in numbers, and decided to leave also.

Luckily, we had not given the driver any of our belongings.  He did not have a deposit from us, and we had no reason to call him again, so we essentially received a free ride to the park and free tea, which was delicious.  We purchased actual tickets to the park, which at the location right outside, there was a student discount, so we saved additional money.  The hike all the way to where we wanted to go was apparently 5 hours long (which I doubt, I think it would have taken 2).  We decided to buy tickets to the gondola to take us most of the way up the mountain.  From there, it was a 10 minute hike (Estimated at 45 minutes) up to the top to a cavern and Buddhist temple.

Copious amounts of picture snapping occurred

Outside of Cavern

Inside of Cavern

Panorama of view near Buddhist Temples

Spotted the most beautiful girl in all of China.

Outside of Buddhist Temple.  The inside was just as beautiful, but pictures are not allowed.

Gondola Station

View from Gondola

Another amazing view from the gondola of the town below the mountains.  It is the largest town near the mountains, around 10,000 people.

From this view, you can see how the tea is grown on platform/layered farming.  Laoshan is famous for its teas.

After a long day hiking (we actually did quite a bid more hiking than I make it seem like in this blog), we were very hungry and after much discussion and indifference about which restaurant to choose, we had to rip a piece of paper into three pieces, write a number on each, and choose one randomly.  Number 1 was the winner, and after a discrepancy on whether that meant Hot Pot or Northern Style Cuisine, we chose a Northern Style restaurant near Qingdao University's campus.  The meal was awesome; we had a sweet pork dish (below), a Julianne cut chicken dish, and a variety of vegetarian dishes.

You know what's coming next.

Yep, more food porn.

Next post, I will have more from Qingdao.  I have not explored the city yet and am eager to do so.  Happy Dragon Boat Festival!