Qingdao

Slate gray, rainy skies greeted us upon arrival in Qingdao, China, thanks to the typhoons that had recently vacated the area. The port we docked in was much more industrial than any of the ports we had been to previously. In getting through the port we dodged big, heavy-duty trucks carrying massive of steel and lumber; this was certainly not a Carnival Cruise Lines stop. Our group’s first order of business was to find money, which was a lot harder to do than in Japan. We headed out into the soggy streets, attempting to use ATMs at bank after bank, but we were unlucky in finding machines that would accept our foreign cards. Our group of ten or so finally made it to one bank which was already crowded with Semester at Sea students as this was a bank that allowed us to do a U.S. cash exchange. Unfortunately, most of us were not traveling with a passport, which was required to do the cash exchange, so my poor friend, Lara, got stuck exchanging stacks of money for at least five different people. The bank was very cautious in handing over their currency and several U.S. bills were rejected because they were deemed too wrinkly or too old or even too new. Money safely in hand, though, our group of seven headed to a Chinese hot pot restaurant for lunch. At the restaurant we ordered a bunch of different foods that we cooked in a pot of boiling water in front of us—think the fondue restaurant, The Melting Pot, but much faster and cheaper. The seven of us ate lunch for what amounted to a total of $5 in U.S. bills. The whole experience was enhanced by Jessica, one of the ship’s resident directors, who grew up speaking Chinese and, thus, ordered everything for us.

Next stop for us was the Tsingtao Brewery and Beer Museum, which was actually quite interesting even for someone like me, who doesn’t care for beer. The museum was really visually stimulating with video displays in each showroom detailing the history and timeline of beer production in Tsingtao, which all began with the German occupation of Tsingtao over a century ago. Through the windows, we could see the many people who were hard at work bottling beer and packing it for shipment. The trip to the brewery was also cheap, about $7, which was considerably less than the Semester at Sea sponsored trip to the same spot. The special bonus was that the beer was really, really good; who knew? Glasses emptied, (Tim, you’d be proud) we could think of no better way to cap off our afternoon of drinking than with a trip to St. Michael’s Catholic Church. Built by the German architect Pipieruch in a Gothic and Roman style, the church could have been located in any European town so white were the Baby Jesus and Virgin Mother! If Some Chinese characters inside the church, were the only indication of the church’s Asian heritage.

While the monsooning weather kept us on the ship that evening, we were unwilling to let the rainy winds keep us inside the next day. Our group diminished to five, we hailed a cab and made it to a Japanese mall, conveniently located right next to, you guessed it…Wal-mart. Now, this is not your Dover, Delaware, Wal-Mart! There was fresh seafood as far as the eye could see, both your eye and the eyes of all of the huge fish packed on ice there. Going to Wal-Mart was such a sensory overload experience, with tons of smells and brightly packaged everythings.

We had a good time combing the aisles to see what brands were recognizable simply by their labels (Coke, Lays potato chips, Sunmaid raisins to name a few) and then headed out for our true sensory experience of the day—lunch. Since Jess speaks Chinese, but doesn’t read it, she asked our waitress to order for us their most well-known dishes. Since one dish was a fish dish, the waitress returned to our table with a fish, alive and flapping in its net, to get our approval. Not long after we met our fish, we proceeded to eat it and another huge soupy, spicy dish of prawns and rice. At the advice of the ship’s doctor, we popped Pepto pills, put on the gloves, and went to work at the food and the beer! The food was so incredibly tasty, but extremely messy. Exhibit A is below:



Needing to be wheelbarrowed out of the restaurant, so bloated were we from our feast, we were greeted by warm sunshine, which was such a nice change from all the rain. After several more hours of walking and shopping, the group that was now three, headed to Qingdao’s famous pagoda, beautiful in its color and architecture. Also from the Pagoda we could see a huge, red mushroom structure on the mountainside, a post of sorts built by the Germans to signal to ships coming into the port.


Positioned discretely in the coastal skyline of the city, the pagoda would have been a relaxing, contemplative spot if it weren’t for the mob of Chinese people that followed us while on the pier. The Chinese locals could care less about Jess, who, with her Chinese speaking skills was hands down the most valuable person in our threesome. Almost everyone on the pier seemed fascinated by Akirah and me, the Black woman and the chemically-enhanced blonde woman, some taking firm holds of our arms and dragging us into pictures. At first it was kind of amusing, but as people grew increasingly firm in their hold on us and their insistence that we pose, the situation grew more uncomfortable. We’d pose for one photo, but tons of cell phone cameras would go off as people rushed to get pictures of us. All the while, we were sporting the “dirty, drowned rat” look, which, although popular in some parts of the world, is far from my best look and will, of course, prove to be quite scary later when the photos are passed around to friends. After the pagoda, we made is safely back to the ship for a quiet sail to Hong Kong—so many students meeting us there since they chose to fly to Beijing to visit the Great Wall. I swear I can feel the extra buoyancy as we near Hong Kong. I appreciate all the letters I have to read on my way!