I remember when I arrived in Qingdao (golly what a lot has happened since) and it was a city gently moulding under constant high temperatures and rain. Due to the crap drains the water would just cover the smaller roads in a never ending flow. Everywhere was wet. And green-that bright, fat green I associate with humid places. Right now, however, the monsoon has yet to arrive and the high temperatures haven't shown up either. All these leads to a rather pleasant climate- warm but never stifling- and the weather contentedly follows its pattern of clear, smoggy, smoggier, smoggiest, WINDY WINDY, clear, smoggy etc. The roads are lined with a few feet of grass, trees and recently planted flowers which give the concrete skyscrapers a leafy screen. The Chinese girls have got out their flowery maxi-dresses, or wedge sandals and shorts. Stools and tiny tables have appeared outside all the hole-in-the-wall restaurants and at night these are full of people eating and drinking Qingdao beer. Well into the cool night, Xinjiang Chinese (the Muslims from the West) set up by the roadside with a couple of their own tables to sell BBQ cooked over embers kept hot by constantly waving their bamboo fans. Even at 2am they are there. I wonder when they sleep.
What has changed in Qingdao since I've been here? The skyscrapers near the university are beginning to get a skin. Others have windows. The roads leading to them are half-finished. No markings or pavements, just a river of tarmac with rubble and the odd stubborn, little stone house on the side. The house always has someone inside. If they come out, the skyscraper builders will probably demolish it to make room. There are some solar powered buses on some Chosen Routes. The 321 gets more crowded by the day. The university has some new embellishments such as a electronic sign to cover up the peeling paintwork, and a big sign in Korean saying something about international cooperation. A bowl of rice is now 1.5 RMB, up from 1RMB. The dirt road opposite Qingdao Yi Lu has been badly bricked over and the fruit stalls have gone. Taxis are 9RMB to start with, not 7RMB. The metro has the odd green shoot of a station above ground.
I'm not quite so lost in translation as I was. Which is a change!
In exactly 5 weeks I will be leaving China, on a train for Outer Mongolia.
Before then I have a trip to Shanghai to collect Sara and my Russian visa and then we are off to Somewhere Not Tibet But Just As Interesting (I shan't tell you where- that's a surprise for when we get back. Or If.), then roll into Beijing to collect parents for a week there before leaving the Middle Kingdom.
But annoyingly before that I have exams. Grrr. This 4 month term is too long. I still have 2 more weeks left of class. Everyone else has packed up and graduated!
Also, interestingly, pretty much every website is blocked at the moment (except the Daily Mail. It's always left alone for some unfathomable reason). I'm wondering why the government has been reinforcing the firewall. Maybe they are worried about the effects of the Arab Spring. Oh well, time to switch on the VPN! The original Great Wall didn't work against the Mongols so god knows why they thought the Great Firewall would work better against students in bedrooms. Tsk.
Random Product Information of the Day: Carrefour doesn't sell lamb. Apparently normal Chinese don't like- it's what the minorities in the north and west eat. They only have beef and pork along with duck and chicken. I don't understand why they are so adventurous with seafood but turn their noses up at roast lamb!
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