Qingdao

Im slightly slacking in keeping the posts up to date, its because China has decided to block millions of blogs and mine is one of them, ive found a way around it so ill start posting again :)

We arrived in Qingdao and managed to get ourselves a nice little twin bed room in Zhan Ying hotel. It cost us 40 yuan (£4) per person, per night.

Once we got ourselves unpacked we were pretty shattered from the journey to Qingdao so we slept till about 1pm. After getting some sleep we had a shower, which also doubles up as the toilet and set out to have a look around Qingdao.

Qingdao is a lovel seaside city. Tall skyscrapers overlook a beach running along the coast. Theres are a few piers, fishing boats, a lighthouse and plenty of little huts and street stalls that cook freshly caught seafood.

We boooked 3 nights originally, but soon sucumbed to the laid back atmosphere Qingdao had and in the end we stayed there for 1 week.

First day we walked for hours all along the coast, through parks and checked out our surroundings, the weather was perfect, warm, but with a nice sea breeze to keep you cool.

At night time we headed out to find a place to eat. The lonely planet book said that Qingdao was a cauldron of good food, and it was not wrong! Our week in Qingao mainly consisted of eating and chilling by the sea, the two things were really that good, it' all you needed to do.

We had sweet and sour ribs (which were amazing) and vegatable dumplings. A very good start to the week of eating. (I still compare everything i eat with these ribs and nothing has beaten it yet).

There is one thing that really stood out for me on the week in Qingdao and that is the little story below.

There were plenty of street stalls selling seafood and on our third night we found a spot on the beach that sold all sorts of grilled food, it had tables and chairs set out facing the sea and looked like the ideal spot to spend the night. The chap who run it seemed to love his life. Chilling by the sea, eating seafood and drinking with his friends. He was knocking back a bottle of spirits as if it were water, me and tom had a shot each and after it burnt my insides we found out it was 54%. No wonder why he seemed to be enjoying life so much.

First time we went there we got some grilled squid. They put chilli power and pepper on them and grill them. Its really really good and cost us 8 yuan (80p). We went back there the night after and he remembered us. We quickly ordered us a round of grilled squid. This time it only cost us 5 yuan (50p). We thanked him and guessed he must of liked us or just charged less as we come back. We got another round of squid and this time he served up some octopus tentacles with it free of charge. Another example of the guenuine kindness of the Chinese people. We went back the night after that as well and stayed there quite late. This time he was giving us beers, crabs, squid and all sorts free of charge. He offered cigarettes and simply would not take no for an answer. It's a shame all we could say was thankyou. We shook hands and hugged and went back to the hotel. Still astounded at the generosity of the man (even now we didnt manage to get his name) we decided to go back there and give him more business to try and pay him back. On the last night we went back (nights before we was either too full to eat anymore or he was shut) . He still offered us free food and i tried to give him a little extra money for our last order ever. We was literally wrestling each other as he was trying to place the extra money back on the table. Tom was in hesterics, the man simply would not accept it after alll the free food and beer he gave us. We tried to explain to him that we were setting off the next morning, i dont think he understood but we said our final goodbyes and hugged and off we went.

On the third or fourth day we hired out a bike and took to the roads by ourselves, luckily not as busy and dangerous as the roads of Beijing. We spent about 4 hours riding around Qingdao and its probably the best way to see the city, any city for that matter, i think ill definitely get a bike when i get back home.

We cycled along the road that run parralell with the sea and then set off more into the city. We found ourselves in a residential area and soon came across a network of street markets. It's not in the guide book and in my opinion something they should not have missed out. Its not a tourist market so it wasnt filled with the meaningless crap you usually get but was full of food, spices, fish, meats and stalls to buy little snacks. We made our way through the market and right at the end saw a stall making pancake rolls we got 1 each and i know i say this about every bit of food i taste but they were the best pancake rolls everrrrr. The streets stunk, puddles of blood and fish insides littered the streets, they do most of the fish preperation on the streets.

On the last day at Qingdao we headed 40km east to Lao Shan, its a famous taoist retreat covering an area of 400km. We got a bus to the entrance of the area and then a cab to the mountain path entrance. It was raining by this point and i was glad i bought my rain jacket. We didnt know where we were going as usual and just headed off up a path. The clouds were low that day and visibilit y was pretty poor. As we were heading up the path we saw people coming down the path but no one was heading up like us, we later found out that theres a chair lift that takes you up there but we were happy to walk it, its a really nice place, and the low clouds may of made the views lacking but the atmosphere was great, it really felt like we was climbing up into the sky. We didnt manage to find the peak, there are loads of routes and we must of taken a wrong turn somewhere, i would recommend to try and not go when it's raining, the rock steps get really slippery when wet and the steps are steep, there were a few moments when i lost my footing and nearly fell down 20m of rocky steps.

Qingdao has been a really nice place to chill for a week, it has been really nice weather everday, after a week rest we are now ready to tackle Mt Tai and hopefully reach the peak of something.

ps i cant embed pics but you can check out my Qingdao set of pics here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/sets/72157617894614842/

Our journey from Beijing to Jinan to Qingdao

So we had our first experience with China railway yestersday and it was one hell of a journey. As i said in the previous post we was on our way to Jinan and then travel to the coastal city of Qingdao. We got a soft seat to Jinan and it took about 4.5 hours, we had plenty of room on the train and as you can imagine the seats were soft.






About 45mins into the journey the man next to me, who i later found goes by the name of Charles, kept curiously looking at my laptop, he asked me what the specs where and that he was thinking of getting the same laptop for his girlfriend. He and I chatted all the way to Jinan, he spoke good english and was very intruiged in how we westerners work, live and how our cultures were different. He was amazed we were travelling for a few years without any means of work, he was even more amazed we had no plan on where we would stay or go once we arrived in Jinan. I asked him if there was much to do in Jinan and he laughed and just said 'its very dusty'.

When pulling into Jinan we could see it looked a bit of a dive, Charles walked with us out to the station entrance, we was still chatting and laughing, we was greeted with even more stares than when we arrived in Beijing, when we got out of the station we could see that Jinan was basically a Chinese version of Romford. Nothing was in English and we, quite quickly, decided we wanted to leave for Qingdao as soon as possible. The time was about 6pm so we knew we had to hurry up so we could find a place to stay once we arrived in Qingdao.


The ticket office was teaming with people, the entire wall was cover in Chinese characters for train numbers, destinations and times, we didnt have a clue what we needed to do to get a ticket. Luckily Charles didnt have work till tomorrow so he was still hanging with us. He offered to get our tickets for us, we accepted and 20 mins wait later he come back with 2 hard seat tickets costing 28 yuan each (approx £2.80), this was going to be our first experince with the hard seat on the Chinese trains and i was actually excited about the experience. Only problem was it didn't leave till midnight so we had 6 hours to kill in a place we didn't like the look of.

Charlse invited us to go and get something to eat with him, we thought why the hell not and off we went 30 mins bus ride later and a 10 min walk further we arrived at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. It was 38 yuan (£3.80) for all you could eat and drink, definitely a bargain!

We filled ourselves up with sweet potato cakes, asparagus, sausages, chicken, squid, langastine, watermelon, ribs, beef cutlets, salad, prawns and pretty much anything else that was there. We sat, chatted, drank and ate for about 3 hours. We exchanged emails and offered Charles a guided tour of London if he ever came over in the future. He walked us to the bus stop and we said our zaijian's (goodbye) and thanked him over and over for all his help and hospitality.

It was about 9.30pm now, we made our way back to the train station and sat in the waiting room till it was time to go. 11.45pm slowly dragged close and we started queing, we saw people starting to run to the train platform and we soon found out why......they wanted a seat.

Our carridge number was 14 and the stairs down to the platform led us to carridge 4. We had to run a good 100m with all our gear on (my main bag weighs just under 19kg). Whilst running past the other carridges we could see all the seats had already been filled up and people where standing down the isles of the carridges. By the time we got to number 14 we were some of the last few to get onto the train, well getting on is probably an exaggeration. There simply was not enough room, there is a small area inbetween the doors and the main carridges where the last people squeeze themselves onto the train. The area probably measures about 3m L by 1m W. Each one of these areas in every carridge had about 10 people in them. I was shocked, we physically couldnt get on. Our bags took up the space of about 2 people, let alone the size of me and Tom. The doors started to shut one by one and we was dashing up and down the carridges to try and see if there was space.

We was fucked, it was midnight, and we were stuck at Jinan station with nowhere to go.

Tom's bargaining, blagging, pursuading, however you put it, skills came into action. The station attendants didnt understand a word of english but somehow Tom managed to plea with one of the chaps and he smiled and waved his hand to say 'follow me'.

He took us onto the other side of the platform and told us to wait here. Another train pulled up and i saw the sign 'Qingdao' on the train, i felt a bit more at ease but didnt know if we was still going to get on the train. The train pulled up and out stepped what i think was the boss. We walked behind the station attendant who was talking to the boss. He reminded my of King Louie from the junglebook, he was shouting his head off and kept looking back to us shouting some words and then started laughing at us, his co workers walking beside him laughed at us as well, we just smiled and nodded. We came to the entrance of the sleeper carridge and we picked up one word in the sentence as he was speaking to us....'english', we nooded and said 'Yes London' a few more loud words come out his mouth and a few more laughs ensued and he then pointed at the door and said go'. I couldnt believe it, Tom managed to do it, he got us on the train, and even better we was in the sleeper quarters. We shook their hands and said xiexie (thankyou).



We was in the small area that i described earlier but luckily it was just me and Tom so we had room to stand. A few people working on he train came into our area and started to try and talk to us. The only words we could exchange where 'England' and 'London'. One chap showed us an Indian Rubee and said 'pound', we didnt understand at first but then it clicked, he was obviously collecting money from different countries. Tom to the rescue again luckily had a few 20,1 & 2 pence pieces. He gave them to him and he kindly offered to exchange them for some Yuan, we told him to keep it for free.



After the train started to move he led us to the sleeper quarters and let us stow our bags up on the railings. We each had a little fold out chair to sit on, the carridge was very dark as people where sleeping and it stunk of piss, we was sitting right next to the toilets but it wasn't a problem i still couldn't believe we managed to get on the train and was overwhlemed at how kind and friendly the Chinese people we met in the last few hours were.

After a hour into the journey the chap who Tom had given the english money to pointed at the empty sleepers in the carridge and made the hand gesture to get some sleep, i'm guessing he was repaying the favour with the coins. At first we declined, they had done too much for us already, they even went and got tom a cup of water because he was thirsty. Another hour into the journey and i was trying to sleep, i was sitting on a tiny chair and a window seal acting as a pillow, i felt the horrible feeling that i had when i was on the plane, extremely tired but simply unable to get into a position that would allow me to sleep, it didnt even have to be comfortable just something that would mean i would fall on the floor when i drifted off. The man came walking down again and offered the bed again, this time i was quick to jump up on the bed.

Im not sure how much sleep i got maybe 2 or 3 hours, i woke up and it was daylight and the noise of the train (they are very loud) stopped me from getting back to sleep.

We sat up and started to try and have a conversation with the people in the beds above and below us (they are stacked 3 high). Its funny how people cannot speak any words of the same language but still managed to have a conversation and share laughs.

We arrived in Qingdao around 5am and what a journey it was. We said our goodbyes to the people in the cabin and also the workers on the train who helped us out. Whilst walking down the platform we bumped into the big chief and he smiled and shook our hands, then of course started shouting and laughing at us.

We got out of the station and managed to find a a cheap hotel with the help of one of the many salesman littering the streets 24 hours a day.

Within 30 mins of arriving in Qingdao we had already been asked to have our picture taken with 2 people, im sure the more south we go, the more intruiged the Chinese people will become.....

Beijing!

Well it's been hectic, haven't had much time to check emails or call home but i've finally managed to get this laptop on and connect to the net, im heading off to Jinan tomorrow afternoon so we are just chilling tonight (hence why im able to write this :))

So where to start, well we arrived around midday on the Thursday and i have to say it was the most uncomfortable journey i have ever made. Being 6ft3 i know i was going to struggle fitting in the seats. Fella in front put his chair back on recline as soon as we lifted off, as you can imagine -_- face .

It was like sleep torture, i hadn't slept a wink the night before leaving and felt really really tired on the plane and also in Vienna airport while we was waiting 7 HOURS for the flight to Beijing. I wanted to sleep but just couldnt get in a comfortable position on the plane, i was shattered when i landed but it all soon went away when we landed in Beijing Aiport!



The place is huge, really clean and quite peaceful. We managed to find our bags really easily and then came face to face with our first challenge....getting on a bus.

Cut a long story short it basically took us about 45 mins to find the right bus. Once we was on we noticed something that would bug us still now. Everybody, and i mean EVERYBODY starred at us. We both really wasnt expecting it. As we walked to the end of the bus we was greeted with long cold stares, no smiles, just stares. We thought we had done something wrong and kept asking each other why the fuck is everyone looking at us??? (few days later we found out they are just curious as most hardly ever see a white westerner, and as a whole are really really nice people.)



So once we arrived in Beijing we managed to get our way through the swarm of people, hagglers, salesman and into our hostel (took us about 40 mins to find :D)

For £3 a night its really not too bad. The mattress is really really thin and you can only sleep on your back because you wake up with a dead leg if you sleep on your side. Shared toilets, bathrooms are generally kept really clean. There is free wireless internet for laptops, 24 hour security, you can walk in and out when you please. Only problem is we have 4 other people sleeping in our room and all of them snore. I just play music and wake up with it still playing, does the job.



Me and Tom have had some trouble navigating the city, we have walked hours and hours around the city, usually in the wrong direction but the last day before we leave we have got the hang of it.



We have travelled around the city mostly by train. They are very quick, clean, air conditioned and cost 40 pence for a return. Bit different to the £14 i use to pay travelling into London.

Ok so some things we have done since we arrived, i cant remember everything -

• Visited the Temple of Heaven

• Took a bike ride around Beijing (nearly got run over, within 5 seconds on the bike i pedalled out into the road and remembered they drive on the other side of the road). We got a a free guided tour by 3 students, they wanted to show us around as it helps improve their english as not many people from London come over, so they relished at the chance. We rode around all the main sites (Tianamen square etc) for about 3 hours and was very good fun.
• Visited The Forbidden City
  

• Visited the snack street, which sells really good cheap food
  

• Trekked the Great wall of China and got a tobogen slide back down, best day so far.

• Tasted proper Peking duck, we ordered a whole duck and got it cut off the duck right in front of us. Tom and i both agree its the best duck pancake we have ever tasted.
• We got chatted up by 3 different groups of prostitutes whilst walking down 1 road, quite an achievement.

I have taken a ton of pics and have managed to get a few uploaded to include in this post.

Keep checking on my FLickr account as thats where they will be uploaded to - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/

Ill leave it there. Beijing is an amazing city and the people are equally amazing.

Peace

Pauli