Days 8 & 9, Tom – Qingdao

Yay for Foraminifera!

So it’s been a while since I did my last one of these… during that time so much has happened, I’ve climbed mountains, visited the largest food hall in Asia, had a wander around Confucius’ home and myriad other unlikely things.

But I think I’ll talk about the last few days we spent in Qingdao city. Qingdao city is one that you’ve probably all seen, we won a fair few golds there in the Sailing during the Olympics. The city was still very olympicked up, with a freshly rebuilt station, buses with ‘One World One Dream’ plastered across the sides and pavements with historical olympic posters inside.

The first place we visited was the old governor’s mansion. Yeah. It was a 19th century German manor house, slap bang in the middle of a Chinese modern city. It turns out that the Germans occupied it for a while back in the day. It was full of western style antique furniture, some of which was utilised by Chairman Mao himself. All very interesting, much like walking round a National Trust house. Our guide assumed this must be what all our western houses looked like. 

German House in Qingdao

We also went to the small Qingdao island, and then what was called a museum of architecture, which had buildings from all different styles, French, German, Japanese etc. And brides. Lots of brides. Hundreds. Grooms as well, posing on every street corner for their wedding photos. It was quite surreal. But I can see why, it was a lovely place. There was a good beach as well with sand. Made you miss home a tad, being by the sea and all…

 

Also, they had a pier. That’s like the trademark of Worthing, but I guess it’s only a few days until we’re back. Though I heard you had snow and other crazy things… and how did Rednapp end up at spurs? anyway, we walked up the pier and back. Which was… interesting. There were a lot of beggars en route, some of them were quite heavily disabled, which pulled at the heartstrings, but the area was very beautiful.

We then went to a rather posh shopping area, selling high-end clothes to the super-rich, which was nice to walk around, but it would be nice to be able to buy things at some point. I regret not spending more in some of the shops we’ve passed, but there should be ample opportunity to shop tomorrow. I also got a bit separated from the rest of the group at one point, I was a tad panicky, but it was all sorted in the end.

 

We then went to some squares, the music square and the may 4th square, which has the iconic red sculpturey thing that you may remember from olympic coverage, kind of a stack of red discs, people were a bit tired and sick of wandering by this stage, and it was towards the end of the day. One particular street vendor got a good sale though, as at least 8 pairs of identical fake sunglasses in different colours were bought from him. 

Qingdao Sculpture

 

 

Which brings me to the final thing we visited in Qingdao, the Oceanography centre!!! Yay for marine biology! Having a bit of science about put me in an oddly happy mode, looking round rooms full of sea life specimens pickled in formaldehyde, as well as stuffed penguins and sea gulls. We also met China’s (and probably the world’s) most learned woman in the field of marine protozoa, or foraminifera! She’d been studying the field for 51 years, stood little over 4 foot and was a really interesting woman. She seemed to have moved a little away from the scientific research area and into the business world, making letter openers, key chains and night lights in the shape of Foraminifera. She’d also opened a sculpture park of the different shell patterns, and swore their designs would be used in architecture for many years to come. We also saw scientifical tanks full of sea cucumbers and the like which had been grown, and some odd colours of lab coats.

It inspired me to do some maths on the train to Beijing, where I am now. I can’t believe tomorrow is our last full day here in China, though I’m looking forward to coming back home.

So see you all soon

Tom

Days 7 – 9, Josh – Qufu & Qingdao

hi guys

 

well what have one in the last couple of days …

on thursday we went to see  the temple Confucius. it was very interesting to see how the temple stated the building regulations for the rest of town. we also traveled around the town and saw some of the poorer areas of the town.

The group at Confucius Temple

 

 

 

on friday we had to be up at 6:30 as we started the 3 hour coach journey to QingDao the Olympic sailing village. once we arrived we travelled to  the forth largest white goods manufacture in the world called Haier, there we received a brief understanding of the company as well as a look around at the different products’ the company produce for all over the home. e.g. telephones, air conditioners, fridges, bathroom equipment etc.

 

After that we checked into the hotel, after dinner we went for a night walk around the part of the town closest to the hotel.

Today we received a guided tour of Qingdao from are lovely host Ivan (who i have really taken to and i will miss terribly) anyway back to what i got up to today, are first stop was the old governors house built when the germans first invaded china in the early 1900’s, we then travelled down to the beach and walk out along the pier. i felt really bad walking along the pier as we walked past 3 badly disabled children, all begging for money, however i knew that however much i wanted to give them money i couldn’t.

 

Group at German built House in Qingdao

 

 

 

After lunch we then went for a walk along the quayside and saw all the little stalls.

tomorrow we are back to Beijing for a tour of the olympic sites.

 

good to see you are all keeping up to date with are experiences …..

 

love Josh xx

 

End of Qingdao Pier

 

 

Day 8, Rosie – Journey to Qingdao

Day 8. Today we got a wake up call at 6.30 and headed down to the lobby to get rid of our luggage after the breakfast we had a 5 hour coach journey to Quindao most people slept on the journey but i had to finish reading a book for english literature. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant. After that we headed for the hotel which is really nice and the dinner was great.  We all went for a walk along the seaside after dinner which was interesting. Cant wait for the sightseeing tomorrow it should be amazing. 

Rosie

Days 7 & 8, Jeremy – Qufu and Qingdao

Thursday

Visited the home of the great Ancient Philosopher, Confusius, which was just around the corner of the hotel. It was interesting to see how highly they regard him and the emphasis they place on him as being the father of Chinese culture. Compared with the attitudes of, for example, the West towards Plato or Socrates, Confusius seems to really impact on Chinese lives, or at least they believe it does. When we were being shown around the home a tree was pointed out to us. We were told that it was planted by Confusius himself. We were then told that the tree was actually only 200 years old as the tree that he planted died centuries ago and this one was growing from some of the same roots. This didn’t seem to bother them at all although kind of defeated the point of admiring it to us.

 

Lunch back at the hotel accompanied by a very community-style concert of Chinese culture. A dance by the waitresses, a man playing a Chinese instrument; a dramatic reading of the poem, ‘Albert and the Lion’ wouldn’t have looked out of place. After lunch we visited the local University. This was a really interesting experience as the student that Bren and I were shown around by was extremely frank when talking about certain issues. It was interesting to compare what we were told by the students in Jinan and here. Talking about the compulsory ‘military-service’ was a real eye-opener.

 

Today we had a five-hour coach journey from Jinan to Qingdao. Arrived here at about one, had lunch, and went straight to the home of Haier, the world’s fourth largest producer of white-appliances. The trip really was as exciting as it sounds. The highlight of the visit was the chance to see the very latest in home technology. From a dishwasher that can be controlled via the internet (rather pointlessly in my opinion as you have to stand next to it to put the things in, while you are there why don’t you just press the button) to a fridge with a built in video camera and television screen, something every home has been lacking. The most enlightening part of the tour was not the floors we were shown around but those that we weren’t. Coming up in the lift we could see from the signs that there was a ‘Labor Union’ as well as a Party Office and Members’ Room. The thought that an office in Britain would have a room especially dedicated to members of a Political Party seems bizarre.

 

This evening has been spent eating the ever diverse Chinese cuisine and going for a walk down to the Yellow Sea. Tomorrow we are having a tour of the town and hopefully a trip to the Olympic Sailing Venue.