Train: Qingdao to Beijing

We took a day train from Qingdao to Beijing. The route used to take 10 hours but now with the high speed train, it takes just under 6 hours. We paid the extra 30 Yuan each (60 total is less than $10) for First Class seats and enjoyed the extra space and comfortable seats - and free bottled water. A much different train experience than our overnight, "coach" class, old train journey. I spent most of my time watching the scenery and reading. It was a relaxing and interesting ride. We read that with the enormous amount of trains & tracks and the large population of China that there about 10 million Chinese traveling on trains at any given moment. Below are photos of the train and the scenery. There is also one video of the digital display in our section - it was in Chinese and English. Click on photos for a larger image.

The train's top speed during our journey was around 248 km/hr which is about 154 mph.

Last full day in Qingdao

We just returned from a lovely dinner and are unwinding for the night. Since yesterday was a food-challenged day for us, John researched restaurants online to find some with English menus and more than seafood (we are in a port city so there is fish widely available but John doesn't eat fish). The more diverse restaurants are not in the area near our hotel. Tonight we hunted down the supposedly only German restaurant in town. With the German heritage / history of Qingdao, we wanted to experience that too. Our taxi driver had to make calls to find the location and I could tell he was getting nervous about finding the address - John had found it on our map so we knew we were close. Monnemer Eck (restaurant name - not in my German vocabulary!) is the real German deal. German accents & conversations and spatzle galore, although the spatzle was long like spaghetti. Tasty food and a fun, friendly atmosphere with regulars coming in (Guten Tag! Gunther!!). It was a bit confusing sitting in a German restaurant while in China with English Christmas carols coming through the sound speakers. The music played in shops and public places vary from current Chinese music & lyrics, Chinese music with a bit of English lyrics thrown in here & there, 70's USA love songs, and Christmas carols in English.

This morning we headed out to May 4th Square (named for the May 4th movement of national protest that started in Qingdao) since it is near the naval activities and on the shoreline. The plaza has a large red sculpture "May the Wind" in a fiery red color and spiral shape of the wind. Many people were out enjoying the weather and gathering around any wandering sailors from other countries. With the 60th anniversary of the Chinese navy celebration bringing in vessels and navys from around the world, we weren't the only foreigners around. Anyone not native was attracting crowds and requests for group photos so some people I don't know have photos of me with their friends / family members. Weird but whatever. We saw the Olympic Sailing Center and walked along the coastline. We haven't been able to find a schedule of naval celebration activities and we didn't see any today - the big parade and sampan (oar boat) race are tomorrow. Of course, we leave tomorrow morning.
After a nice lunch (another place John found online), we went to Beer Street to tour Tsingtao Brewery. Unfortunately the brewery was closed today and will open tomorrow (of course). Here is a very disappointed John in front of the brewery.

We walked down Beer Street which is basically wall to wall bars with kegs all wanting you to come into their establishment for beer.

We wandered down the street and found Beer Square. All the benches are the in the shape of the word BEER; there is a sculpture of beer cans; the back side is a large bookcase display of beer cans & bottles; large walk-through kegs and beer cans. Funny, especially with the people in oversized, cutesy animal costumes. All the man-hole covers are decorated with animals holding beer.

The sign declaring the area "The birthplace of beer culture" cracked me up - the brewery opened in Qingdao in 1903 and beer had been brewed around the world way before that.Tomorrow we are taking the train from Qingdao to Beijing. John is excited since we are on a D train route (there is also L, K, and Z trains) which is using the new high speed train. Our trip should take just under 6 hours - it was a 10 hour ride before the new trains. We paid the extra US$10 to sit in "soft seat" [First Class] which has reserved seats and more space.

Qingdao scenic views

We started today with a huge breakfast buffet - combination of Chinese and "Western" foods. John even got some tasty coffee (yea! instant human - just add coffee) which is a challenge in the land of tea drinkers. Qingdao is known as China's "Little Switzerland" as much of the old architecture is German / Swiss. After the murder of two German missionaries in 1898, the German forces took control of the town and Qingdao was ceded to Germany for 99 years. The Tsingtao (how the town name used to be spelled) brewery was opened in 1903. In 1914 the Japanese took over control after a naval bombardment of the port. They held the city until 1922 when it was ceded back to the Kuomintang. The Japanese returned in 1938 (Sino-Japanese war) until defeated in 1945. Qingdao is the 4th largest port in China and has a population around 1.6 million. The 2008 Olympic sailing events were held here.

We spent hours walking around the old part of the city - the German architecture under the Chinese signage and adaptations gives an interesting look. We wound up on Signal Hill in Xinhaoshan Park and walked around the area. The big tourist draw is a rotating viewing floor in a red "bubble" tower and the scenic overlook of the city.

The view of the Yellow Sea from our hotel room.

Our hotel is across the street from the train station which is very convenient for when we take the train to Beijing on Thursday. As we discovered last week, taking the train is easy - buying the train ticket is the challenge. The schedules are difficult to decipher even by the locals. Luckily the hotel bellhop took our information and got our ticket in about 15 minutes - it would have taken us a long wait in line and lots of gesturing and hoping for an English speaking cashier.

Below are views of the city from the park:

Olympic events area and the port where the Naval 60th Anniversary celebration activities are taking place.

Tsingtao Brewery (with "cans" on roof) - we hope to do the tour tomorrow. Supposedly admission includes 3 beers and a souvenir beer mug.

John and I with the Yellow Sea and old city area behind us.

Brrrrrrr....Qingdao

Okay so we went from hot & humid Xi'an to cold & humid Qingdao. It's midnight here and the windows have condensation and it's 10 degrees C (50 degrees F) but feels colder! By Wednesday it will get to a high of 19 C - much better. Unbeknown to us, Qingdao is the location this week of the 60th anniversary celebration of the Chinese Navy. Twenty-one vessels from 14 countries arrived just before us. The naval parade is Thursday. This gives our stay an interesting twist. We are staying at the Eagle Canyon Hotel which is like night & day from the Xi'an City Hotel - much nicer here and a much newer hotel. And they supposedly serve Western style breakfast. The Chinese breakfast buffet was not appetizing nor tasty (I tried several of the items!) and the 24 hour McDonald's became our morning dining location. This hotel room not only has free internet, it has a whole computer already set up...you should have seen the glimmer in my computer geek husband's eyes! We have the laptop hooked up to the computer and using both screens (different windows open on each). Well, it's late and I'm tired. G'night.