And now, Qingdao

Returning to Beijing after Inner Mongolia, I took a couple days' rest and hit the road again.  Well, the high-speed train tracks to be more precise.  I have never in my life taken Amtrak after my 21 years of existence being born and raised in the states, but have probably spent more hours on Chinese trains this summer than I would have liked to.  

My travel itinerary for the next couple weeks.

 After about seven hours, I made it to my hostel in Qingdao and began to explore the surrounding area.  The next day, Joseph joined me from Korea and we went from tourist attraction to tourist attraction via bus and foot using my handy Baidu maps and Baidu travel apps.  The days were tiring but full as there was really a lot to see!  Qingdao is a coastal city in Shandong province which was once colonized by the Germans, so it is well known for beaches, German architecture, and, of course, Tsingtao beer.

Walked along the pier near our hostel.

Recognized the Tsingtao logo.

Hi Joseph.

Toured around the naval museum.

The famous Chinese poet Lu Xun has a beautiful park here in Qingdao.  And yes, that is me on the rock.

Qingdao was named after Qingdao Island which is off the coast of Qingdao.  Qingdao Island is an island shaped like a violin.  Here we're facing the neck of the violin and catching a beautiful, albeit foggy, view of the city.

May 4 Memorial

Day 2: We hiked up a hill in Signal Hill Park and got this view of the city.

Of the German-looking buildings, many of the nicest ones are churches.  This is the charming protestant church at the foot of Signal Hill Park.

Within the church.

The former German governor's mansion.

Tsingtao beer factory!!

Tsingtao everywhere.

Beer street at night.  In August, there is an annual beer festival here with beer from all over the world.  It seemed crowded enough on a normal night.

And that was all in less than two days!  More to come on Qingdao.

Like I said, the blog is not dead!

I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.  --F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Contrary to the recent blog inactivity, I'm now a few weeks off of the most intense traveling I've ever done in my life!  In light of the Google Reader shutdown while I was gone, I'd be surprised to find out I have any followers left.  Regardless, coming home and telling friends about my travel stories has inspired me to continue documenting my travels for the blogosphere anyways.  If anything, it will be a sort of virtual journal for me to remember this summer.  Besides, now is prime time to write things down before these memories become too vague!  That would just be tragic.

Ok, so I think I left off at the very beginning of summer when I was in Inner Mongolia.  It was probably one of the more unique places I went to in China given that we spent less than half of it in a big city.  A few UC friends and I hopped on a little tour bus with another family and our beloved tour guide, Li Dao, and endured long bus rides between Datong, the Xilamuren grasslands, the capital city of Hohhot, and the Gobi desert.  Half the trip was spent trying to entertain ourselves through those long road-tripping hours.  Besides making a significant amount of progress on my trainchinese app, I think I gained some abdominal muscles from laughing at animal sounds we started making to embarrass the driver.  But ok, enough about the bus ride and onto horseback!

So refreshing to leave Beijing and see some blue skies!  We stayed in these touristy eurts while in the grasslands.  Much too nice to be authentic, but they do go well with the clouds in the background, no?

Mongolians wrestling tourists and throwing them into the sand for our viewing pleasure and..well..I guess their pleasure as well.

Passed by this Monglian Aobao while horseback riding.  They told us it's used for romantic love.  I guess they weren't lying if this is true.

I really wanted to touch this cow but was too scared.

Woke up at 4am for sunrise in the grasslands and it was worth every minute!  My little iPhone camera does not do it justice.

A few days and many kilometers of bus traveling later, we find ourselves hanging out with these lovely desert creatures!

I just really liked taking pictures of them.

Yup.  Inner Mongolia was pretty awesome.

Besides camel-riding in the desert, we also went sand-sliding and got way too much sand blown up our nasal cavities.  It was worth it, though.  The feeling of sitting on a spiny-backed camel, looking around, and feeling like you're in a scene of "The Prince of Egypt" running from Pharoah was surreal to say the least.  I wish I could have blogged earlier about this trip so as to remember more details.  In the meantime, I'll hold onto hope that someday I can go back.