National Holiday/ First Week Off

Because Last Sunday was China’s National Holiday, (their 4th of July essentially) and last night was Mid Autumn Festival, aka Moon cake Festival, we had this past week off, and were able to do some traveling. And thanks to the beautiful amazing Donna Schwarz I had a brand spanking new camera just in time to set off and explore China. Therefore this post will have an especially large number of photos. That only adds to the story though, I think.

After a few days of confusing and unreliable planning we set off on Saturday Morning, the 31st, to Tian, with the intention of climbing Mt. Taishan.
“We” being, myself, Jon, JT, Danny and Kev. Me and the boys, I liked to call it.


We started out Saturday morning on a 7-hour train ride from Beijing to Tian with standing room only tickets (they were cheaper and our goal of this trip was to see a lot but not spend a lot.) Because we were fairly sure that standing for that long was not something we really wanted to do we opted to sit in the dining car for the entire time. This meant we had to cram 5 people into a 4-person table, with all our bags, and also that we had to order a certain amount of food. So the boys had some beers at 11 am, and we had mi fan (rice) and other things that I essentially just chose not to eat. At least we were sitting though.
We had gotten out tickets last minute through JT’s host student Nadia, and had come along with her and her boyfriend Dean, only for the first few days though.

Upon arrival in Tian we explored a little and bought some provisions for our nighttime adventure and then boarded a public bus. We would have been better off walking because of all the traffic, but eventually we made it to the base of Mt. Taishan.

We started climbing the 1550-meter tall mountain at around 8 pm. Before picture:

The climb wasn’t too bad to start out with, but only got worse as we went a long. Every time I thought we were getting to the top it turned out that wasn’t it, it was that teeny dot in the distance, or it was a point I couldn’t even see yet. It didn’t help that everyone climbing around us were carrying little day bags or purses and we had huge ass backpacking backpacks. For the last however long distance I broke out the ipod and some Mike Doughty to encourage me to get up there. When we finally did make it I still didn’t believe that it was true.

We finished the 6660 stairs around 4 hours later. At the top!:


I was dead tired, and whiny, and just ready to pass out. It was a group consensus though, so we set up our tents on a cement platform and headed off to bed, though not before donning warmer clothes.

We woke up about 4 hours later and trekked up some more stairs to a few ridges and platforms to watch the infamous sunrise. Legend has it that by making it up this mountain you are guaranteed to live for 100 year. We’ll see how that works out. I ‘ll let you know.

It’s also lucky to see the sunrise because it only really shows about 50 days of the year, and seeing how ours was pretty spectacular, I’m hoping this means my luck has changed. Although armed with my brand new camera that my loving mother got to me just in time, I would say it has. Here's Kev, Jon, and myself, bundled up for the chilly morning. We rented these coats to sleep in the night before.


The next three hours basically didn’t allow my camera to leave my hand. Because we had climbed up in the dark cover of night, there hadn’t been many scenery pictures taken, and it proved to be more breath-taking than even expected.




Also, as there was a monestary on top of this mountain, although Buddhist not Taoist like I had originally suspected, there were quite a few shrines on the way up. The red ribbons, and the locks both supposedly meaning good fortune, and the locks more specifically to ensure the longevity of a couple.

Now without Dean and Nadia we began our trip to Qing Dao all by our lonesomes, although I think Danny maybe had some of my luck because he got his wallet stolen on our bus ride back to the train station.

A 5 hour train ride later, this time in much more comfortable sitting tickets we arrive in Qing Dao. We search out a reasonably cheap hotel, especially for being so last minute, and find dinner. Like Taishan, it was hard to see the city’s glory that night and only after the darkness lifted the next morning did I really appreciate this city.

I love Qing Dao. A seaport city it is one of the cleanest in China, and because of that and it’s location compared to Beijing it is the sight of the sailing portion of the 2008 summer Olympics. It was founded by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and because of its European occupation boasts a large amount of very beautiful, and very western architecture. Many times I had to remind myself we were even in China.

We essentially just wandered the city for the next 4 days. After that first night in a hotel (we were desperate for a good nights sleep and a shower after the strenuous day/night we had had) we spent 2 nights camping on the shorefront. In Lushon Park. Lushon Park you have to pay 5 RMB to get into during the day, but at night you can just walk in. They’ve pretty much managed to make you pay for everything in China, including going to the bathroom. (1 RMB)


On the first day we split up (unintentionally, but it worked out) and JT, Kev and I visited the Tsing Tao Brewery, located on Beer Street. We had our first bout of seafood (though first of many) and then made our way back to the shore front near our beloved park to have another meal of mussels, clams, and beef noodle. Then another tented night.


The next day we woke up around 6 am and made our way to the other side of the peninsula to take us to Huan Dao, the island just a 30 minute ferry ride away that has the best beaches of the area. We did finally make it to the beach around noon (it proved very difficult to find the ferry, especially with Chinese people pointing us in many opposing directions) and spent the rest of the afternoon, into the evening there. We had to stop a few times to check the book and the map.

That night we met up with Mike, Jody, Jamel, and Jerome, they had done the same trip, Taishan to Qing Dao, but left two days later in order to spend the National Holiday in Beijing. We had a really good meal with them, a seemingly endless amount of food for so little of a price. Then we went back to our comfy tents and they to their hotel.

The next morning, our last full day we dropped off our bags in the inn we were staying that night and then went off to explore the city.

The inn. First let me tell you about our inn. JT, Kev and I discovered it in our wanderings the first day. It looked like a little antique shop, but turned out to be that and oh, so much more. This is Peter: he is the owner, and also lives there with his wife Helen. He took an endless number of pictures of us to add to the slideshow of foreigners he had going to show all who had graced his humble abode with their presence.
We were definitely lucky to find him.

For 40 RMB for the night we lived in these quaint little rooms, in which the boys couldn’t really even stand up in.

We really just explored the city for the rest of the day, went to a few more beaches, saw both a protestant and catholic church, Danny and I explored a castle, and on the beach found a bride festival or something… but that night Helen took us out to dinner. Peter had offered to cook us a dinner of endless seafood but we got back kind of late and opted to go out on the town. It proved to be a good decision as we suddenly came upon a nightlife we didn’t know existed. (I’m hoping there are hidden places like this in Beijing that we just need to find.)


Between the 5 of us, Helen, and another tenant, and their good friend Rose, we ate over 250 kabobs. There were liver kabobs, tendons, kidneys, full shrimps, chicken hearts, cloves of garlic, basically anything you could imagine. (Except pork, Jon can't eat pork.)

Then we cabbed it back to our favorite Qing Dao accommodations and had some guitar before we hit the hay, to wake up early that morning and board our final train back to Beijing. It was a sitter also, and besides JT being sick for about 6 of the 10 hours, it wasn’t too bad at all.