We wandered around Qingdao looking for distractions and entertainments! Bill wanted to find a barber to get a haircut as the hair was tickling the top of his ears and it bothers him. I said that I could cut it for him....he declined. We saw lots of salons, but no "old man" barbers. The shops had cute name, such as Benny Barber...and Benny is a bunny holding scissors!
Across the street was a book store, so we headed there and wandered about for about an hour. There was a small English book sections, and a large, "yuge" cookbook section. Sadly, they were all in Chinese. Almost bought one, the recipes were done mostly in pictures of ingredients and techniques. But, passed it up as it would me dragging it with us for the rest of the trip.
We found another 85 deg C and sat and drank coffee and had a sweet. Heading home to pack up for our trip to Xi'an the next day.
Qingdao grew on me, at first, I didn't see it's charm....It was another Chinese city in a simultaneous state of rising and decaying. There were entire building complexes of multiple buildings that were abandoned, or very sparsely populated, contrasted with shiny new ones going up next door. Everywhere there was metro construction. Main streets dug up and pile drivers bang, banging all over town. We did not take any public transit while in Qingdao, as we couldn't find any working metro stops. It seemed they were all in construction. There were high end malls right next to low end ones. People selling sea shells on blankets at the waterfront and sales people in spiffy suits in front of jewelry stores. The longer we were there, the more the dicotomy of the city grew on me. In sections, it would be hard to distinguish from a well-to-do LA suburb, and in other spots, a favela. But, taken together, they wove a beautiful fabric that surrounds the city.
The waterfront was a bit seedy, a bit honky-tonk, a bit upscale; but all with this charming walkway surrounding the entire bay. The promenade was a great mingler of peoples--tourists, locals, children, grandmas, entrepreneurs, police--all with a great sea breeze and a bust of Beethoven to boot!
Across the street was a book store, so we headed there and wandered about for about an hour. There was a small English book sections, and a large, "yuge" cookbook section. Sadly, they were all in Chinese. Almost bought one, the recipes were done mostly in pictures of ingredients and techniques. But, passed it up as it would me dragging it with us for the rest of the trip.
We found another 85 deg C and sat and drank coffee and had a sweet. Heading home to pack up for our trip to Xi'an the next day.
Qingdao grew on me, at first, I didn't see it's charm....It was another Chinese city in a simultaneous state of rising and decaying. There were entire building complexes of multiple buildings that were abandoned, or very sparsely populated, contrasted with shiny new ones going up next door. Everywhere there was metro construction. Main streets dug up and pile drivers bang, banging all over town. We did not take any public transit while in Qingdao, as we couldn't find any working metro stops. It seemed they were all in construction. There were high end malls right next to low end ones. People selling sea shells on blankets at the waterfront and sales people in spiffy suits in front of jewelry stores. The longer we were there, the more the dicotomy of the city grew on me. In sections, it would be hard to distinguish from a well-to-do LA suburb, and in other spots, a favela. But, taken together, they wove a beautiful fabric that surrounds the city.
The waterfront was a bit seedy, a bit honky-tonk, a bit upscale; but all with this charming walkway surrounding the entire bay. The promenade was a great mingler of peoples--tourists, locals, children, grandmas, entrepreneurs, police--all with a great sea breeze and a bust of Beethoven to boot!
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