Saturday, June 16

The sun was making a valiant effort to break through the fog this morning.  After some morning puttering, we went out on the hill for a little ‘constitutional,’ bringing our ball and scooter with us.  Julia is sure I will turn into a 7 year old if she tries often enough!  We tried out the moving ‘ride’ this morning; Julia has longed to do this!  There are a set of ‘rides’ in front of many little 7/11 type shops, which cost 1 or 2 yuan.  This one actually moves; very attractive.  It’s good to get these boxes checked. 

Starting out towards the hill

This is the "ride" Julia tried

See that it has actually moved along the sidewalk?

What a lot of fun we have had in this community space!

We made the excursion to Number 1 beach, since there was sun.  When we got there, the conditions changed about every 10 minutes:  fog, dense fog, dim sunlight, clear skies.  It was strange!  Sometimes nothing could be seen beyond the edge of the beach; sometimes it was clear to the horizon.  When clear, one could see up on the hill a temple; this is one built for tourists to experience, and for the good view.  Below are some of the buildings from the European influenced era (in the late 1890s), with tile roofs and more western construction.  Over the hill are Qingdao Bay and the area called “Old City.”  This beach was much more crowded than Number 3; lots of tourists I expect, in street clothes.  There is a string of umbrellas, many with little four person table and chairs.  These can be used for a fee.

Number 1 Beach!

Behind Julia is the line of blue and white umbrellas with tables for rent

We arrived as the tide had an hour to high.  Julia began the ritual digging, creating a hole and then a moat.  Slowly the water gets closer and closer; eventually, she watches it be filled and a bit washed out by the waves.  She thinks it looks like a chair and sits in it.  Later, standing on the spot where the hole had been, she notes that it is gone completely.  She toyed with the waves a lot, not willing to go in completely, but tempting the water to get her soaked.  The waves weren’t high, but they did build a bit and crash with a good sound.    I took 200+ photos of her playing—with a digital camera, you can capture so many nuances!  As well as a lot of negligible photos!  Some show a young girl, a bit older than Julia, who was drawn to the water over and over despite being in her street clothes—the beach was full of people like this, who had come on purpose but who weren’t prepared to ‘be at the beach.’  Those in the water were predominantly male, actually! I don’t know how to explain that. 

Getting started on the hole

Beginning the moat!

Julia is a very deliberate worker!

Fetching water for the moat

Almost lost the bucket!

Trying out the hole-turned chair, thanks to the tide.

Playing in the waves!

What fun!

Playing near a lovely Chinese umbrella

Julia's cute towel

Here is the other girl, so interested in the water but constrained by her street clothes

A whole group of beach goers without suits or water clothing

Around and near this beach are some plazas and courtyards, with garden landscaping nearby—I think these spaces must have been constructed around the Olympics.  It would be interesting to know what construction and/or landscaping in the city occurred because of the Olympics.  And are these spaces etc useful to the community in the post-Olympic era?  Today there were cars being featured and sold in one section of the plaza.  I took some photos, since these two have their cost on them:  40,000 yuan, and 32,000 yuan for these tiny cars.  That’s $6281.00, and $5025.00.  Where are the cheap cars in America?  (and/or, what do you get for that amount of money?).

A very Olympic plaza!

A car for 40,900 yuan

And another, 32,900 yuan

In one photo, you can see a man eating an ear of corn; vendors roamed the beach selling the cooked corn.  You can see people walking near and around the boardwalk throughout its length eating corn.  In addition, in some areas, you can purchase roasted sweet potatoes.  Actually, I did that today, since we saw a sweet potato seller for the first time.  I have been missing sweet potatoes (not in the groceries/vegetable stands) and this was irresistible!  One selects the potato and the vendor weighes it on a hand scale—a stick with notches and a tray hanging from the stick!  Ingenious.  He wouldn’t let me take a photo! 

Eating corn at the beach - while Julia tries to avoid a splash in the background!

We took two buses to get to the beach—through the May 4 Square, where the fountain was on today! And a restaurant on the plaza features a giant duck as advertising device!  

The big fountain

Such a fun mascot!

The second bus, 317, runs along the coast a great length.  So we sat in the back of the bus so that we could get a nice view.  The bus neatly drops us at Number 1 beach.  Julia, however, was eager to go back to Number 3 beach, so after 2 hours of play, we set out down the boardwalk, to get to Number 3.  Then I decided to take a bus, so as to still have energy when we got there, and to get us out of the sun for a while.  We hopped on the 302, which presumably was heading along the coast road.  Nope.  Rapidly, the bus turned in the opposite direction than I was predicting—hmmm.  But, that means it is headed in the direction of “old City” which would be fun to drive through, a plan I had had for another day.  So no problem.  We go mostly in that direction for a while, but not far enough to the east; instead, we turn north.  Still, the view is pretty good.  Suddenly, I realized that we are driving in Tai Dong, where Mia took us shopping two Saturdays ago.  Julia and I agree that we should get off the bus, get on a 307, and head back home (we had been planning to return to the spot where we got on the 302 and keep heading toward Number 3 beach).  So, we get off, and we walk for several more blocks than I had calculated, but nonetheless we find a 307 bus stop, in the shade no less.  Along comes the bus almost immediately; we’re feeling good.  The ride is long; we are a good 15 stops from home.  At some point I doze off (having slept only about 4 hours last night), and when I open my eyes, we are at the last stop of 307, which is not at our community, as I had expected.  Hmmm.  The bus driver looks at my magic card with the community address, and appears to understand what’s up.  Next thing I know, we are pulling into the bus depot parking lot.  What now?  He passes us on to 3 different drivers, trying to locate someone who is heading onto that route.  Finally, we get on a 379, which turns out of the parking lot in the opposite direction than I had expected!  However, after 15 minutes of route completion, we head up the hill outside our community gate, and arrive home—some 1 ½ hours after leaving the beach!

Julia was worried when we hit the 307 bus depot part of the story.  Later, when we went to get on another bus, she anticipated that we’d get on another wrong bus.  I was offended at her willingness to throw over 6 weeks of successful bus experiences!  I think it all did happen because in fact we have had such good experiences—1. We know something about busses now and how routes work and which busses go where;  2. We know a bit more about the city   3. We could always get off anywhere and get a taxi!

After some downtime, we went back downtown for dinner at the ‘chain’ Asian restaurant which was recommended by the Japanese mother from school.  It was a beautiful evening, coolish but pretty.  The Marina City area was bustling!  We took some photos at the fountain—I realized recently that this set of fountains commemorates the cities which have hosted the modern Olympics.  They certainly are greatly enjoyed by the children! 

Heading downtown - so hard to resist a ledge to skip on!

Julia enjoying the fountain and her scooter!

At the restaurant, Julia helped out in communicating with the waiters, using her burgeoning Chinese; so too, later at a shop.  She is so pleased with this!  (Oh, yeah, she helped with the sweet potato vendor too!).  We actually had pretty good food here—Julia orders chicken dumplings that have an attractive flavor; she also loves a bowl of sticky rice and the bottle of soy sauce.  Perhaps it’s less authentic than other places we’ve tried; on the other hand, she eats it!  Plus, the place is clean and spare and attractive.  In addition, there are plenty of Asians eating in the restaurant, so how inauthentic can it be?  I ordered a pea salad, which came with pea pods in a vinegar marinade.  The pods were so tough! So I popped the peas out, and they were tasty.  I made a little pile of pea pods and ate the peas (got to get my money’s worth!).  Eventually, the staff removed my plate of empty pods and gave me a fresh plate—was I doing what they expected or not?  I had eaten two of them and they were inedible to me; so, seemed like a workable solution!

Julia considering her options

Mama's tasty peas and Julia's traditional sticky rice and soy sauce (and Sprite!)

The public square was so lively and pretty when we left the restaurant—the whirling pinwheels around the fountains and the flags everywhere make it feel festive.  We strolled up and down, and then Julia took a boat ride, daring to bump in to strangers on the pond!  With a Dairy Queen Blizzard as the perfect ending to the evening, we walked to the bus stop—the city was bright with lights and energy.  We walked past a stretch of sidewalk which we frequent.  It had been torn up along one side, about 2 blocks long, and workmen, there at 7:30 pm, were preparing to plant hundreds and hundreds of small yews in the newly turned dirt.  By tomorrow morning, it will be a substantial border, a mini-fence shielding the pedestrians from the traffic.  China seems to have an ability to do this—to conceive a plan and execute it by means of throwing a large number of people at it.  There is clearly still a command mode in the Chinese system.  Things do get done!  I don’t understand why they don’t use this ability on the filth. 

Julia bravely bumping another boat!

City lights!