I agree with Matt that the current exhibits at the National Art Museum of China were not very enjoyable (to us). However, there were just a couple redeeming parts, one being a collection on the top floor that followed German landscape artists through a few centuries, and the other was a scanner of sorts. A really big scanner.

Due to the distances and cost of travel in China, we’ve taken a lot of overnight transportation. China is by far the largest country we’ve visited on this trip. Just to give you some perspective, its roughly three times the size of India, the next largest country we’ve visited. China is also approximately the same size of the US (even including Alaska), so imagine how long it would take to get from the southwest corner to the northeast corner as we’ve done in China. Secondly, with distances so far, the only transportation options are often train or plane, both of which are pretty pricey. Yea, Chinese trains are nice, but they’re pretty expensive relative to other Asian trains. So to save time and money, we’ve gone for overnight travel wherever we could. The night train from Qingdao to Beijing was pretty nice. It left at around 8pm, shortly after which I passed out. When I awoke, we were rolling into Beijing Station. Joylani and I navigated our way out of the massive station, dealt with some touts (there’s scammers even in China), and got a taxi to take us to our hotel. That’s the other thing. With Chinese cities being really modern and expensive, cheap accommodation is hard to find. The cities don’t have budget backpacker enclaves like most other Asian cities and urban accommodation is really expensive. So for the first time since Europe, we’ve made a habit of booking accommodation in advance. Back to Beijing, we found out hostel and as usual after an overnight journey, showered and took a morning nap. My first impressions of Beijing were kind of what I expected. It is huge, super modern, has lots of construction going on, and polluted. Like other Chinese cities, it is clean with wide streets and lots of space. Although big and modern, Beijing is also famous for its hutongs, or alleyways. Our hotel is back in a hutong area and although interesting, its like a labyrinth back here. We started our day with a trip to the Beijing Art Museum. Although I wouldn’t go to any art museums or galleries if it weren’t for Joylani, most exhibits have some redeeming qualities at least. Not this one though. The first floor was all “modern-media” art, which is to say it’s a bunch of electronics and CG graphics. While it sounds cool, the exhibits were weird. Walking through the exhibit was like a futuristic nightmare. We escaped to the next floor, which was totally dedicated to one German “artist’s” work. To me, his “art” exemplified all that is wrong with so-called modern art: big canvases painted a single color w/ no variation or pattern (okay, house painters can do that), paintings of single lines (great, the artist attended pre-school), and other ridiculous things. Of course, his bio showed he’s nearly 80, has married three times, has kids ranging from age 2 to 50, among other things. The last floor was an exhibit on the evolution of German landscape realism. I was happy to get out of there to say the least. Since our next destination is home, we headed to the Silk Market, which is really five floors of anything you’d ever want to buy. We didn’t buy anything, but did some “research” on prices. I think we’ll check out a couple less-touristy markets too and then decide the best place to go on a shopping spree. I figure there’s a lot of things I’ll need once we go home for good, so I might as well buy them here and save a bundle. After the market, we ducked into a local place for dinner before retiring to our hostel. Our first day in Beijing wasn’t too exciting, but we got to know the city a little. Regarding Beijing, so far, so good. We’ve heard so many negative opinions of Beijing, but it seems like an okay place. Perhaps we’re just practicing the famous saying, “The key to happiness is having low expectations.”

I haven’t written at all lately, because I’ve been busy having a great time in Qingdao. Initially, we were planning to stay in Qingdao for three or four days. By the afternoon of our first day, Joylani mentioned she could stay for awhile. Initially, it was the beach, the old Bavarian town, the nice climate, and the awesome atmosphere that appealed to us. But after hanging with Jeff and his crew, and then Matt, we decided to stay for longer. We did do some touristy things, like visit the beach (which was disappointing due to a massive algae outbreak) and explore downtown, but we’re really going to remember Qingdao as an awesome week of hanging with friends. Jeff was incredibly hospitable and generous; not only did we crash at his place, but he even treated us to tons of meals. Plus, his group of friends adopted us for a week, which was really cool. And Matt took time our of his busy schedule to come see us from his place a couple hours away.

A few highlights from the past week include:

Night activities. One of our first nights, we headed out to a bar for an open-mic night of which Jeff, Sam, and Sha Zhou were the undisputable highlight. Sha Zhou gave me a copy of his latest album too. One night, Sam and Sha Zhou took Joylani and I out for a night of billiards. After a long and challenging attempt at snookers, we reverted to pool. And out last night, we all went out to an arcade.

The Food. One our first night, Jeff introduced us to Qingdao BBQ. We definitely had our fill of BBQ in the past week, consuming piles and piles pork and beef skewers along with tons of plates of seafood and veggies. On quite a few nights, we had late-night meals or snacks at the so-called “corner bbq,” a little stand that opens up on the sidewalk kitty-corner to Jeff’s apartment. Staying up late into the night downing beers and BBQ will be some of my favorite memories of Qingdao- especially the 45-skewer night that lasted until 4am. Ah, the corner BBQ. All the meals with Jeff, Matt, and new friends were good times of conversation and fun.

The Beer. When in Qingdao, drink Tsingtao. Lets just say we followed that.

The People: Besides our awesome friends who helped us with everything from constant translating to medical recommendations, Qingdao-ians are great. We’ve found this to be true throughout China and Qingdao is no different.

To recap: fun, food, beer, friends. It was an amazing week.

We went to another park today, where Matt promptly fell asleep (keeping in accordance with our long tradition of sleeping in parks in Qingdao). While Matt napped I watched the action over at this pool with giant beach balls. An older kid was in one of them, and it was fun to watch him try to stand up and walk in the sphere. But this poor little guy looked so miserable in his ball, despite how enthusiastically his mom tried to cheer him on.

We tried to go to the beach today. I mean, we made it there, but the whole “beaching it up” part didn’t exactly happen as the entire stretch of shoreline was covered and saturated with an endless pile of green algae. The Chinese knew how to do it though. From seaweed fights, to burying friends, to splashing in the waves, to lounging on the shore, everyone seemed to be having a good time.

As I watched, I wished I wasn’t so freaked out about have bits of green algae stuck all over my skin, but I couldn’t overcome my hesitation. Rather than playing in the waves, Matt and I huddled under our little umbrella, eating cherries, and watching everyone else enjoy themselves.

this little kid was only wearing his floaty ring

This was entertaining enough, but only for an hour or so, after which we decided we’d had enough of the beach for one day. We hopped on a bus headed towards the main downtown area and went to a grassy park where I promptly laid down and fell asleep in the cool shade. (Sleeping in parks…a reoccurring theme in Qingdao.)

Qingdao has been great not only because it’s a pleasant coastal city, but we’re getting to see friends too. Staying and hanging with Jeff is great and last night we got to see Matt, another old friend. He took us out to the only Indian restaurant in town, followed by some hot drinks at a small café. He’s returning home soon (after a year in Qingdao), so we all shared about our past years and plans/emotions regarding the return home. I won’t go into all that we talked about or anything, but it’s always great to see friends. Thinking about it, Matt is the sixth person we’ve met up on this trip. So even though we’ve been away and isolated to some extend, its been cool to visit our friends living abroad who are also away and isolated. Friends always make travelling and locations that much better, and Qingdao is no exception.

Today we met Sam and Sha Zhou, along with several other friends, coworkers, and students from Jeff’s school. After another tasty dinner and many clams, we headed out to the East West bar to watch the guys perform at an Open Mic. Matt covered the night well in his post, but I just wanted to give an extra shout out to Jeff who’s finishing up a new album. Jeff is just as great as a musician as he has been as a host—here’s one of his performances to give you a small taste of how engaging it is to watch him perform. Jeff’s returning to LA at the end of the summer, so if you live around there look him up on-line and go check out one of his shows. Also, props to Sha Zhou too who’s also a great performer and has some good music out too. Here’s an old video I found on-line to “introduce” you to Sha Zhou and show you a little bit of downtown Qingdao.

Meeting and hanging with locals is one of the best experiences one can have when traveling. They know the good food, the interesting places to go, and the fun stuff to do. But most of all, by hanging out, they invite you into their world. Such was the case yesterday. After exploring a bit more of Qingdao in the afternoon, we went out with Jeff. First, we walked over to the school he teaches at to meet some of his colleagues and eat dinner together. It was cool to meet both the foreign teachers and Chinese admin staff. Then we all headed to a new bar, called East West, where Jeff, Sam (another English teacher), and Sha Zhou (Qingdao’s most famous hip-hop artist) were performing. We met a bunch of the schools students at the bar and all drank as we watched the open-mic night unfold. The highlight was definitely Jeff, Sam, and Sha Zhou, for both me and everyone in the bar. Even at 21, Sha Zhou is a known and popular guy. He even gave me a complimentary copy of his second album which he was promoting. At around 12:30, we headed back to Jeff’s apartment, but stopped to eat some roadside BBQ with Jeff, Sha Zhou, and Guanhua (a local photographer). As we sat out there on the deserted street corner eating skewers of BBQ’d pork and drinking cheap Chinese beer, we talked about things you’d expect in such a situation. Joylani asked about their thoughts/opinions on the one child policy and we discussed US-Sino relations in the media and our respective countries often negative portrayal of one another (especially in the media). The funniest quote of the night came from Sha Zhou as he was standing up to go take a piss around the corner, “American’s think that Chinese people have no freedom. We are free. We can take a dump or piss anywhere we want, even here on the street like I’m gonna do right now.”

Joylani pretty much summed up our first day in Qingdao. Our homelessness, the nice city, and the incomparable experience of meeting up with friends after a long time. Seafood is always good too

We’ve been experiencing food trouble lately.  Fear (of what we may get) and inability (menus in Chinese with no pictures) to order at many places has led us to eating a limited variety of cuisine since we left Hong Kong.  Bakeries, corner stores, street vendors (noodles and buns), and, yes, western fast food, had sadly become our daily fare.  It’s not that things are necessarily bad, we’ve had some really great bread and stuffed buns (baozi) from little places here and there, but this is China—there is so much more out there to be eaten!  Well, tonight we tapped into the gold mine.  Actually, it was more like my friend, Jeff, tapped the mine.  Matt and I just got to enjoy the results.  Jeff’s an old friend from college who’s been living in Qingdao for the past year teaching English and making music (LINK).  He graciously came out to meet us at our hostel, and from here we walked just down the hill to a BBQ restaurant.  Qingdao, being right on the coast, is known for its seafood.  Wonderfully fresh seafood as in so fresh that at the market today the clams were still so feisty they were squirting water out of their bins.  And, apparently, in the summer many places set up a grill outside.  BBQ and seafood: the best of the best.  After picking a restaurant, we took our seats and Jeff began to order for us.  The only things I knew he ordered were grilled pork and beer.  He and the waiter exchanged a quite a few words though, so I assumed a few other things were coming as well.

What ended up coming was a feast.  First a plateful of little clams arrived.  Delicious.  Then came a tray piled with pork kebabs.  Nice and juicy.  Another tray of larger clams.  Steamed cabbage with pork.  Grilled peppers.  Two pitchers of beer…oh wait, the guy was getting ready to pour another one.  Jeff rushed outside to tell him two was plenty, realizing that “three big cups” meant three pitchers.  Grilled green onions arrived.  “Be sure you chew them well,” Jeff warned.  We were busy enjoying the hot, juicy, and perfectly seasoned food when we saw the waiter walking towards our table with a large BBQ squid.  More food, and we’d hardly made a dent in what we already had.  The squid was a tasty addition, though, and we kept on eating.  One more squid (maybe two?  It was hard to tell because it was cut up) arrived.  We pushed on.  After our day of snacking, such an excellent meal was a great finish to the day.  Even now I can’t really describe the food very well, except to say that it was very good and there was a lot of it.  Replayed memory does a better job of envisioning the feast, so I guess you’ll just have to come to Qingdao to see for yourself how good the BBQ can be.