Qingdao

For my 31st birthday, we took a weekend trip to Qingdao. Before you think that Peter has become a master planner of romantic weekend surprises, let’s just say that we started out with a high-speed train to Qingdao which excited him much more than I. Certainly the technology has improved in Chinese train travel, but the ticketing system is still really arcane, and the trains still unfortunately smell of bathroom. But it did have a top speed of over 150 miles/hour (exactly 250 km/h).

Qingdao is a coastal city, home to Tsingtao beer, a nice leftover from its days as a German concession. The older part of the city has a distinctly European flair, with narrow, wind-y streets, and churches prominent in the skyline. We wandered around a bit, and stumbled upon its large, daily open-air fish and produce market, which I have pictured below. There are lots of “bathing beaches” in Qingdao, creatively named by number, which offer nice city views and a bit of respite from the crazy heat.







We splurged and stayed at the Shangri-La Hotel, a lovely five-star hotel. One of the nice things about traveling in Asia is that these luxury hotels, while still expensive by local standards, are much cheaper than in the U.S. Western breakfast in bed, that made Peter happy as a clam.

We went to the Qingdao Beer Festival Saturday night, in a part of town called Beer City. Basically you pay admission into this beer theme park, where Tsingtao Beer, Budweiser, Asahi, and a bunch of German brands each have tents under which there is a stage with a singer or other entertainment, and lots of tables filled with Chinese drunks. Basically a big beer garden. There was also an amphitheatre, and some state fair-type rides.



Unfortunately, we didn’t really have a train ticket back, and they were all sold out, so we had to take a flight back to Beijing. The only seats available were in first-class, where the two flight attendants fussed over the eight first-class passengers constantly. I sat in seat 1A. Definitely a luxury weekend.