Sorry I did not post yesterday but I did not have any time between getting back from the Expedition and heading out into the night so here is the roundup of yesterday. Warning: it seems to have turned into a novel...
So after comprehensive planning ("er this bus looks ok") Becka and I agreed to rendez-vous with Daisy at the Ferry terminal in Old Town at 10am. We were heading out in search of 金沙滩 (Jin Sha Tan, Golden Sands Beach) which is located in 黄岛 (Huangdao- Yellow Island, I wonder if there is any contrast being made here with 青岛, Greeny-blue Island). 黄岛 and 青岛 face each other across the mouth of the 胶州湾 (Jiaozhou Wan, Jiaozhou Bay. As far as I can make out it means Rubber Prefecture Bay but I'm not sure...) so we had to get a ferry across.
Needless to say we were all hopelessly late, having seriously underestimated the average speed of a Chinese bus through a Chinese city, but luckily we arrived at roughly the same time as Daisy. The bus stop for the ferry terminal is in a fairly run down area, basically a building site. The road surface was filled with pot holes and there was a lot of construction detritus littered about. Becka and I got off with some trepidation that we had ended up somewhere dodgy but after a short walk we arrived at the terminal. We had to go through a security scanner which I suspect wasn't on-which was confirmed by a later event, of which more in a bit. We bought tickets at 10元 each (1 pound) and joined the very long queue. We are British, we saw the queue, our natural instincts urged us to join, so we joined. After a couple of minutes Daisy, who grew up in Malaysia so perhaps the instinct is not as ingrained, went and asked and we realised we were queueing for the wrong ferry. There were two ferries we could get and while there was a ferry to 黄岛 we actually wanted the ferry to 薛家岛 (Xuejia Dao, Xue (a surname) Family Island. Again not actually an island. Whether a piece of land is an island or not does not seem to bother the Chinese when they call somewhere an island). So we hurried there and ended up having to leg it down the gangway. Three foreigners moving at speed attracted even more stares but we made it on to the ferry.
The trip over was nice as we could see Qingdao from afar. Annoyingly, as today and the day before had been clear blue skies, it was cloudy and a bit smoggy but we could still see fairly well. It took rather a long time to make the crossing as for some reason we stopped a way away from the docks for a while. We were definitely arriving into an industrial port as there were several huge steel ships around as well as great big machines for repairing and loading. It was not exactly aesthetic but impressive in its own way. Eventually we landed and then we hurried to the buses. Thus followed a slightly odd period of time. I had had the bus No. 4 in my mind (or 8... I confess I couldn't remember and I'd lost a slip of paper with it on) but we ended up with the options of a 2 and a 19. And a random guy with a van saying he could take us there. We have a rule- if it's not a taxi we are not getting in it. And it was a van not a taxi! As it turned out we needed a No.19 bus. Which posed a problem because while there was a plethora, indeed a veritable smorgasbord, of No. 2 buses with waiting, willing drivers, there was one No. 19 sitting forlornly in the corner. And driverless. We stared at it for a bit. Eventually a man got in, and we got all excited, but then he reversed it into a space. And then he got out. Our excitement died down. Then he got back in and drove it forwards. Hopes rose. He got out again. Dashed.
There weren't any taxis available, at least proper ones, so we dithered for a bit. But then the wind must have changed direction or something because the driver decided he did fancy taking a trip so finally opened his bus up and we hopped on, comandeered the back seat, and headed off.
We drove through a bit of 黄岛, which I shall describe later, to the beach. Now before going I had repeatedly seen 金沙滩 called the "best beach in Asia". I will quibble with this award but the beach itself was indeed very nice. The sand was a lovely honey golden colour and very fine and soft. It stretched away on both directions, with only a few people (as mentioned before, today was a work day despite being a Saturday) and there was a collection of rocks and rock pools on one side. The sea was clear and warm, with perfectly sized waves. We all had a little paddle for a while before wandering over to check out the rocks. There were some Chinese there hunting for cockles or something. There were a few curious rectangular, man-made pools in the rocks but we did not understand the sign so I'm not really sure what they were for. There was a small hill here with some little buildings on. All in all, it was a lovely beach. If you faced towards the sea. Immediately behind the beach was a western style funfair which, like all western style funfairs I have seen here, was nearly completely empty. There were some stalls selling buckets and spades, shells and other tourist tat (er, of which more later...) and some restaurants. In the distance, though, were row after row of skeletons of skyscrapers. Finished skyscrapers can look alright but the skeletons, being all concrete, are very ugly. It was odd because a beach like this in the west would already have had a town on its shore with shops and houses but everything here was new and rather characterless.
At this point we went hunting for lunch. The use of the word "hunting" here is rather apt as lunch tended to still be alive. Each restaurant had a row of buckets with fish and god knows what else in. I swear I have seen aquariums that don't have exhibits as broad as this. Some buckets had the most foul looking wormy things in. They looked like what a rectum must look like. All rubbery, tubular sacs. *Shudder* When walking past I caught movement in the periphery of my eye and there was a huge splash and I leapt a mile and screamed, thinking something was coming at me. It turned out to only be a fish making a sudden movement. I looked a bit of a twat... One of the women pulled a sea slug out and offered it to me telling me how delicious it was. Instead we ordered fried noodles, fried rice and cucumber cooked in gravy or something. It was expensive too!
Afterwards we headed back to the beach, via the stalls. One had a variety of sizes of turtles and tortoises for sale. There were some really tiny ones and some huge ones. I think they were for pets, as opposed to eating because you never know..., as they were in "fun" glass bowls with plasticky adornoments. They looked utterly desperate and Becka wanted to buy them all and then release them in the sea. We carried on browsing and I didn't really want a shell covered model of a dog, or a shell bracelet, or a piece of coral. No wonder the reefs are dying- the Chinese have got it all on their mantelpieces! However we came across one that was selling something slightly different- big, heavy, metal swords. Having wanted to live in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for several years now I *had* to have one. He had some huge cleaver swords in lacquer scabbards, but I deemed those too heavy, and some samurai type ones (plain and strong) which I deemed too plain although they were nice and elegant. In the end I settled on a blade that was quite flexible, like the one in CTHD :P, in a reddy-brown scabbard with decorations. The sword has a red tassle on the end :D He was asking 220元 for it but it soon transpired that between the three of us we only had 130元... In the end we went to an atm and withdrew a bit more and settled on 170. Daisy reckoned I could have got lower but I reckon he must have paid around 130 for it in the first place, because he wouldn't take 130 when we offered and walked away, and I wasn't going to quibble over 10元- which is only a pound.
So now I am the owner of a sword that ,whilst I wouldn't call it authentic, is still a few grades above tat. Plus I got it for around 17 quid when in a shop here it would be 50 and in the UK, 100. I'm tempted to get another one and sell it on ebay :P. It is lying beside me as I type, just in case of attack...
I keep unsheathing it and giving it a swish :D
Becka bought a toy wooden crossbow and three bolts and promptly lost one bolt within 5 minutes. The other two she happily spent the afternoon firing. Although she was a little disappointed at the range. Daisy bought nothing, except an ice cream.
Then we went and sat on the beach, ignoring the offer of paying 20元 to use a plastic chair... It was really nice being sat on the lovely golden sand, sometimes chatting, sometimes just looking at the sea. We did get bothered for a photo (they like taking photos with foreigners- we're not quite so sure) but we declined. We got stared at a bit but then a man with only one leg came to swim so we stared at him for a while. He swam really quite far out while his friends stayed on the beach holding his other leg. One of them was a rather rotund man, wearing a tight white shirt (not a good choice) and, bizarrely, a string of pearls.
There is a little story about why 金沙滩 has such golden sand. Apparently there was a phoenix flying to a bird party in Heaven but as she passed the beach she fell so in love with it that she landed and never left. If it didn't have the backdrop that it now has, I could see why she did not want to leave.
After a while we had to leave as we wanted to get back so Becka could do Taekwondo. My toe has still not recovered after I hurt it last time but is getting better. We set off at 4:30, Taekwondo being at 7. As we left I noticed a man in flurorescent yellow trousers (which I've just realised are like a pair mum keeps trying to make me wear) who had been hanging around and Not Looking At Us in a way that meant he most definitely was, also happened to be leaving. I mentioned this to Daisy. We did a diversion to the toilets but when we came out he was waiting some way away. We went to the bus stop and got on a bus. This one was going to the ferry terminal at 黄岛 not 薛家岛 but we didn't mind the change. As we sat down we realised, he had got on too... Thus followed a hurried conference.
Suspense.
He got off several stops later and walked away. Anti-climax. Although he had been acting rather suspiciously...
It turned out that 黄岛 ferry terminal was a long way away from the beach so we ended up having a rather long trip through 黄岛. 黄岛 is interesting as it lacks the money and gloss of 青岛. Plans here have been drawn up, pored over and then put into action... but never completed. There were hundreds of bilboards showing the artists' impression of a building or an area so we could tell that the intention was for great buildings surrounded by wide avenues lined with gardens. Or the odd Bavarian country cottage. What you ended up with was big, wide, empty, dusty roads surrounded by sparse grass and shrubs with big, ugly concrete skyscrapers that were mostly unfinished. The finished ones gave the impression of being mostly empty too. It seems here that they have built a city for people who don't yet exist... As we drove further into town gradually we began to see people and shops and some sort of hustle and bustle. But it still gave off this slightly eery feeling that we pondered over on the bus exactly how to describe. It was definitely the feel of a small town in a big country. The kind that, if you grow up in it, you aim to get out of.
We not only got the old laowai stare we also got pointing :P
Eventually we arrived at the terminal. We went through the security terminal and my sword did not set off the machine- hence why I think they were only there for show. I was worried they wouldn't like the sword but as it was in a box no-one really noticed it. We ended up, again, having to leg it to the ferry. They had taken up the passenger gangway so we ran down to where the cars were still driving on and got on that way. We dashed over the bridge, expecting it to be drawn up and we'd have to leap, huffed and puffed up the stairs and sat down in our seats. Made it.
And then waited for 10 minutes while they finished loading. No rush after all :P
By this point it was 6pm and it was fairly obvious Taekwondo wasn't happening so after a bit of night-out planning we went and leant against the sides to watch as we crossed. It was twilight now so the sky was all stormy grey and brown from the smog. If you looked back all you could see were the huge cranes, machines and factories of the port, all black but lit up with work lights and the occasional sparks from some welder. It looked very post-apocalyptic. And we were on this rusting, metal ferry with the smell off the fumes and the slow clank-clank of the engine. It really was very otherworldly-like the human race had destroyed everything green and all that was left were just factories and machines...
Then we decided we were letting out imagination run away with us :P Still, it was quite eery.
We could see in the distance what looked like a bridge. I remember when I flew in that I saw a bridge marching off into the distance and hadn't been able to see where it ended because of the smog. It turns out that they are building a bridge across the bay. It will be 35.4km long. Amazingly, this will not be the longest bridge in the world as there is one near Shanghai at 35.6km and one in the US at 38km. (There are longer ones, but these do not go over only water). What mighty feats a race of glorified monkeys can achieve eh!
Eventually we landed and hopped on a bus home. As I have mentioned, the roads near the terminal are not good and going over one pothole caused the entire bus to collectively bounce up from their seats and back down again with a collective "ooo".
After a brief recharge of batteries we headed out to dinner at 麦凯乐, some department store. On the 7th floor they have a restaurant which has a dazzling array of dishes all helpfully replicated in plastic form which makes it so much easier to see what you want. We went for sweet and sour pork and rice (taste of home!). It was a bit of a disappointment though as I got slightly too many pieces of gristle in mine and the flavour was quite weak. However it was then off to L.P.G. This is definitely an expat watering hole. I had a gin and tonic along with Daisy and we both think that there was something wrong with the gin or the tonic as I felt ill afterwards and she is feeling a bit funny today too. As I did not feel so good we sat outside and were joined by a Canadian and a Chinese. The Canadian extolled the virtues of being free "to you know, walk down the street drinking a bottle of beer and noone cares". Daisy, I think, made an excellent point by asking how he knew they didn't care. They could quite easily be offended by some big laowai walking down the street drinking but just would never dare say so. The Chinese man had just broken up with his girlfriend and was very boring to listen to. When we had finally got rid of them (the Canadian was driving home and Daisy asked if this was wise and he slurred that wazh ok- he only lived jusht down the shtreet), an old man sat near us said that I looked like a runner. We went and sat with him and it turns out he was a member of the infamous Hash House Harriers. This a running group founded by expats in Malaysia 80 years ago and involves light running and heavy drinking. Chinese girls go to find a white husband. I always think white men must like it here. They get a far better league of girl, can treat her far worse but be treated by her far better than any white woman in the west. Anyway I digress, this old man, whose name we never got round to asking, was an Australian engineer. While I have been here I have been expecting to find the old Aussie propping up a bar telling stories and here he was. He'd worked all over Asia and was quite happy to trawl through his life story for us. I found it charming although I was worried the others would be like oh no we're stuck but they quite liked him too. After a while we said goodbye and, as I felt better, we headed off to Le Bang. Le Bang is some bar/club place. We found some of Daisy's Cambridge friends who were visiting from Beijing and had a little boogie. Eventually Becka felt hungry and I lost a contact lens so we called it a night and had a pleasant walk back- although I think Becka was a bit bored by my topic of conversation :P
The End. Congratulations if you made it this far!
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