Yantai and Qingdao

Yantai

We arrived at 3am and checked into a hotel with no hot water. The front desk told me the hot water would be ready on Friday, two days after we'd left - Sweet! When I plugged my camera battery charger into the wall, the electricity went out.

The hotel room was an appropriate metaphor for the city. It was clean and quaint, but there wasn't much to see so we visited the coastline and took some funny pictures before having lunch near the Yellow Sea. It was refreshing to breath the ocean air instead of the smog-ridden stuff in Shanghai that gives me grey boogers.


Qingdao

Churches - We visited a Protestant Church, which was built by the Germans in 1908, and a Catholic Church, St. Michael's, which was finished in 1934. The inside had ornate pictures of Jesus and St. Teresa along with confessionals which gave new meaning to the term "open." This is only the second Catholic Church I've seen in my limited China travels.

Brewery - Qingdao is the most popular beer in China. The brand was started here by the Germans in 1903. We checked out the hops bins, mixed it up with some of the mannequins, and drank beer at the end of the tour. Good times.

Naval Museum - consisted of a Chinese-made submarine that was put into service in the 1970s but retired a few years ago and is now being worked on (see pics). We also checked out Russian-made naval ships and aircraft, which were sold to the Chinese many years ago. From what I understand, the airplane designs are similar to American designs because the Russians copied us.

Lighthouse - At the end of a narrow pier, there's a lighthouse overlooking Qingdao Bay and the Yellow Sea. Pieces of it were under construction, but we climbed to the top and made our way into the open air for a few minutes and shot a quick video. Then we walked to a nearby park and drank 40s of Qingdao (Marconi-style).

Zhan Bridge and Huilian Pavilion - The bridge isn't actually a bridge. Instead, it's a long narrow pier that extends into Qingdao Bay. It reminded me of being down the Jersey shore as a kid. There were lots of people out for a casual stroll, playing cards, selling nick-knacks, and asking Americans to have their picture taken with them.