Inhabited by humans for 6000 years, Qingdao was taken by Germany from 1898 to 1914. There remain many areas of German architecture, churches and other colonial buildings. I love that style. (Despite the history, much like the US Southern plantation buildings with their horrible histories, the architecture remains and is lovely. The antidote, I think, is having Chinese people here now own those German buildings, like when people of color own the plantation homes.)
We spent last weekend there with our friends from San Francisco whose two kids are also in MI in SF. They, like several SF MI families, are spending most of the Summer in China, traveling and staying put, touring and going it alone. The kids are having varying degrees of practice seemingly owing more to the kids' personalities rather than the modes of travel. Our two friends jumped in with both feet. Neither parent speaks Chinese and both kids took over the translation. They are just post third grade, are, like LiLi, 9 years old, and are fluent speakers who seem to feel comfortable and effortless in the language. Sure, there are times when, like LiLi, they go on strike and say, "I don't know how to say that," when they do. And when motivated, say by ordering ice cream, they suddenly find a fluency none of us knew they had. Plus, now that I can understand a bit myself, I can hear when they're straying off course, saying things we grownups didn't ask them to say.
We took the bullet train from BJ's South Station, a huge well organized station rivaling many airports. We made our ways to the station from different parts of BJ and hooked up via cell phone once there. It's advisable to have a meeting spot since the station is so huge but we figured with both families wired we'd work it out.
We called our friends once we got to the drop off entrance and they'd gone ahead to a FF restaurant looking for coffee. McDonald's is behind and above a Chinese noodle house so the signs that seem to be taking one to McD appear to wind up a the noodle house. It's a bit disconcerting but also a relief: McD serves noodles in BJ! But no, actually, you keep walking and go up a set of stairs and there you are, golden arches. LiLi has never set foot in a Mcdonalds at home and has been heard to say, loudly, "I don't like McDonald's or Burger King, yuck." I know the time will come when she's out with friends and it will happen, but I didn't figure on it happening in Beijing, China. Funny thing, our friends don't ever go to Mcdonald's at home either, and were shocked to find themselves there too. Still, it was a good meeting place since we could all sit down together.
My Beijing mom's group had advised we get first class train tickets since they're not that much more than coach and are much more comfortable. Plus, the sets of two seats swivel so it's possible to have four seats facing each other. In China, with things changing on a dime as they do, one can plan for, for example, a five hour ride in first class, soft sleeper seats in a train with a dining car, and wind up in 3rd class hard seat, smoking seats in a train with a squat toilet and no dining car... for nine hours, so we weren't sure how it would all work out. Alas, the seats and train were as we thought. The ride to the coast was smooth, bullet fast, and lovely. The terrain is flat and farmed, with loads and loads of trees planted in hedgerows and any available space as a result of China's aggressive reforestation policies. The farms may still be family owned, and do still include the tiny little mounds mid-field that are the family's dead, buried according to Feng Shui principles, in the best possible spots. I love those little tombs in the middle of ripening crops. So safe, so rich, so obvious a reminder of impermanence.
We got to Qingdao and enjoyed the historic (partially) train station and taxi-ed to our gorgeous hotel, Sea View Garden Hotel. We stayed in room that did, in fact, have sea views, walked along the sea shore, bought and flew kites at May 4th square,
The air in Qingdao was so so clean. The sea breeze was renewing. The sun felt good. There is something about being on the coast, any coast, that just feels better. Less crowded; less congested; less claustrophobic.
I'd rather live on the sea. Maybe the Pacific. Maybe the other side of the Pacific.
Or maybe the Yellow Sea.
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