I have been without internet access for two days—we feel a
bit bereft! No news from
Camp Roger, no Supreme Court updates, how 20th century it feels!
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| Heading out this morning, tiny car in tow! |
We had a busy day today, the last Saturday for an
adventure. Left the apartment at 9
am, catching the 314; our plan was to ride it further than we usually do, to
its end stop, actually, where we hoped to find an art store that Sabrina had
directed us to. My directions,
though, said to catch the 110, because the original plan had been to go from
school. Perhaps it is my
nationality, or a look on my face!, but a woman on the bus asked me if she
could give me any assistance. When
I showed her my paper, she said, “this is the stop for the 110; you must get
off now” and proceeded to get off with us! She read the board at the stop and told me the stop I wanted
for the next bus was 2 stops away.
So, we were ready to go!
What a generous thing to do; I really don’t think she needed to get off
there, so she went beyond even kindness!
Well, we followed our directions, got off the 110 two stops
later, and stood somewhat bemused in the middle of a completely new
neighborhood, with no landmarks and no clear sense of how to locate the store,
whose name we had, but no street, no number. I knew it was ‘over there’ near the big overpass, but that
was about it. Enter angel number
two: a woman waiting on the curb
noticed my vague attempts to figure out what I was going to do, and approached
to help. She tried to spot it,
asked a vendor, thought with us a minute, walked up the street, came back on
the phone, and had somehow located it (called it?) and had directions. Then, she too insisted on accompanying
us to the store. I tried to say
No, but she was clearly coming, and since I couldn’t actually talk to her, I
acquiesced. Thank goodness!
Because we never would have found
this place; it wasn’t’ far, but it was convoluted! We walked past a more noticeable level of poverty than we
have yet seen, and we walked through a little district selling to
fishermen—tiny vendor stands selling….worms? or something yet more gross. The kind lady left us standing in front
of the art store, safe as could be.
So we had the fun of shopping for art supplies in
China. The ladies in this
shop—square footage maybe 300, 6 salespeople—were keen to know our story; when I gave them the standard three
word phrases, I again got that strong, pleased response. One woman said thank you to me;
clearly. It is very touching to
me.
My plan had been to take a taxi to the next location;
obviously this was going to be a good idea! It was so interesting to view this whole new section of
Qingdao; it’s really a huge city!
And the taxi ride gave us the fun of a good view as we zipped through
neighborhoods and up and down hills; this is a particularly hilly section of
the city, near the Old City. More
house-like structures, older style apartment buildings, many more trees and
other plantings, a lot of twisting and turning in the streets. We hit a minor traffic tie-up, and the
taxi driver shooed us out—we were easily able to communicate that if we took 10
steps up the hill and turned right, we’d find the German Residence, circa 1905,
that we were looking for. Up the
10 steps, turn to the right, and it was right
there; I really appreciate that the taxi drivers are so very trustworthy.
The German Residence was pretty, huge, a nice example of
turn-of-the-century European architecture, with some Asian overlays. It was crowded with Asians on tourist
buses, snapping pictures everywhere (despite the No Photography signs
everywhere, much to Julia’s distress!).
There were some lovely grounds too, with some really old, big and
beautiful trees; a magnolia with flowers the size of dinner plates! We enjoyed this little ‘traditional’
touristing, a first for our trip.
It was densely foggy this morning, so the great view from this little
hilltop wasn’t as good as usual, but still we could get a bird’s eye feel for this
part of town.
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| The German building |
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| Huge! |
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| Some of the lovely grounds |
Walked down the hill, spotted the famous palace which a German governor spent
so much money building, that the Kaiser fired him and called him home, so that
he never lived in it! But there
was no entrance! So we didn’t get to see that.
Right at its feet though (lots of hilliness here) was a
perfect park—a Community service part—were we ate a snack, right by an enormous
old spreading tree. It was a
glorious specimen of some kind of pine—I love an old, big tree! Snack eaten, Julia gave the playground
equipment a good run through, satisfying a bit her sense that there needed to
be a kid thing to do.
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| The fabulous, huge tree |
We walked up the hill then, looking for a particular little
park that is supposed to be quaint, sweet, and with good views. Much stumbling and fumbling—with the
help of a mildly adequate travel book photocopy of a map, including only a
random handful of street names.
Asked a policeman, who wanted to help, but at best could just wave us
on; I felt his dilemma!
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| A very Chinese gate we passed |
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| Sculpture! |
And, with a combination of native directional good sense and
some luck, we found it! Oh, yeah,
and with the help of the third kind and helpful woman of the day! We were walking in what turned out to
be the right direction, but map in hand and slip of paper too must have
suggested that we could use some help; at any rate, she stopped her path
homeward with a bag of eggs to ask.
Again, with no shared language, we did manage to make some connection,
but clearly she anticipated some pitfalls once we were out of sight, so she
accompanied us down the street, up the right hand hill, past the left hand
turns she so clearly was trying to warn us away from (and which I understood to
the extent of thinking that the left hand turn was going to be the one I
wanted!), and on up the steps and hillside. She pointed out the back of her apartment building as we
passed it—no entrance to it except by backtracking the whole route! Until she left us at the top of the small
hill, 20 steps from the “Old Observatory” at the top. The generosity of these women!
The Old Observatory is now a Youth Hostel; I realized
suddenly that the young man we had encountered at the bottom of that right hand
hill must have come down from this hostel. He had apologized for not being able to tell us anything or
help with the English/Chinese barrier; he said, “I’ve only just arrived.” His whole story fell into place for
me! He probably needed us more
than we needed him, at that moment!
Three days into a long stay in a new country with minimal language
skills and no buddy (or, why stay at a youth hostel?)—I felt for him! China takes some getting used to!
At the top of this small hill was the most curious
ramshackle house, with garden at side.
From it emerged two modern, immaculate, city ladies. It is one of the contradictions of
China—so much looks ramshackle, and dirty, and yet the people themselves don’t
look like that at all.
There was also a pavilion where 3 women were painting the view—old roofs
of red tile stretching out to include the twin spires of St. Michael’s Catholic
Church (our next location, we hope) and on beyond to the skyscrapers of 21st
century China. With sunshine! A young couple tentatively confirmed my
thoughts about getting to St. Michael’s (I am beginning to learn to plan for
the ups and downs of the hills; just because something is next to something
else on the map doesn’t mean it is ‘right there!’)
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| The Old Observatory |
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| Painters |
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| The view of St. Michael's |
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| Rooftop view |
We meandered with the streets down, around, back into a more
modern part, busier with cars and buses, and another park that was functioning
just like our hill—people eating, riding, and gathered in groups playing cards;
lots of trees and various sitting equipment. Down the block, and there it was—St. Michael’s! Success. It has an attractive if familiar front, with the two famous
spires. But, it is in renovation,
and the whole thing was blocked closed—darn! I had hopes of peeking in. It was sitting in an open plaza that looked a bit like an
Italian plaza. Straight across
from it was a long low set of steps, where lots of people were resting in the
shade. The steps led to the (big)
Qingdao Wedding Center! I thought
that was pretty funny—a fancy reception hall had planted itself in this
convenient location!
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| Saint Michael's |
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| The plaza around the church |
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| The Wedding Center! |
We stepped back to the street, thinking taxi, and watched a
three-wheeled car buzz by—something like a toy car buzz! As the route included a nice downhill,
we started walking, and stumbled onto the correct path down to the seaside, so
continued walking, in the nice breeze and with some candy to sustain us. We were headed to Qingdao Bay, which is
supposed to be lovely, and with the Old City clustered around it. When we finally got to the beach,
however, we were flabbergasted!
The photos convey the scene:
tide about half out, rocks exposed in great numbers (only a short strip
of regular beach), and masses of humanity clambering around the rocks, picking
their way gingerly in their city shoes and Saturday afternoon nice
clothes! There were vendors set up
out there! Essentially no one was
prepared for anything like a traditional beach day, not that they could have
had it with this tidal situation.
It was so hilarious! I took
way too many pictures, because all I could think of, over and over, was ‘ah,
the humanity.’ There is a famous
pier here, which was also covered with a constant stream of walkers heading out
to the ersatz pagoda that tops the pier. The boardwalk was crowded as well; my plan to follow
the boardwalk around to the next beach area was fast fading in the face of the
actual conditions. Across the bay,
to the east, one could see some of the old structures, red roofs, houses etc. But at the foot of that distant area
was also the bus parking area; even from this distance we could see it was
packed with tourist buses!
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| The little, three-wheeled car |
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| Mickey Mouse candy! |
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| The "beach"! |
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| The umbrellas belong to various vendors |
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| SO many people! |
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| The red, European-looking roofs and the colorful tour buses, parked below |
So, it is 2 pm, we haven’t eaten a formal lunch, it’s sunny
and hot—we decide to skip the long boardwalk walk and catch a bus. We have the good luck to catch a 223
which goes from this far southwestern corner of the city all the way across and
up to our northeastern community!
Wonder what the logic of that route is! But it suited our needs to a
tee. It was a good morning spent
in a part of the city that was completely foreign to us. We didn’t ‘do’ it justice, but we got a
feel for the old Qingdao, within the limits of an 8 year old’s patience. I was glad to see this last, big bay,
with its tiny island lighthouse, called Little Qingdao. And glad that we hadn’t started our
beach experiences here! The guide
book says, ‘Qingdao is famous for its beaches, which are pleasant enough, but
don’t expect the Riviera’ and it’s right; the beaches are only fine. The sea is wonderful though, so close,
so alive and active enough to engage interest. I have loved being so close to it every day.
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| Little Qingdao |
Evening game plan:
one last dinner at the hotel buffet restaurant. This is something of a splurge, even
though Julia is free. But the
mango ice cream was wonderful (I wish I could just walk in and buy a 20 yuan
cone!), and the food overall has been good; the setting is lovely, makes us
feel special, and the place is reliably clean. We went there via Jusco, the department store, for a little
window shopping. We bought Julia a
new bike bell and tiny penguin as a reading prize. The things one can fritter money away on!
The restaurant was shockingly unbusy—is it the holiday? Or
is business bad? We had a good
dinner but not a great one; no mango ice cream! That is bad business!
But, free Qingdao beer, lots of sushi, shell fish and dumplings for
Julia. We were content. I am glad we didn’t save it for our
last dinner in town though; that
stuffed feeling you get at a buffet is not what I want for a 13 hour plane
ride! We haven’t had great food in
Qingdao (thinking here of what Dory must have eaten in Paris a few weeks
ago--nothing but good food!).
Between our several food limitations, we are, really, not that easy to
please. For instance, we passed up
the steakhouse in this same hotel which the principal strongly recommended—just
not our current cup of tea, so to speak.
I probably should have just popped for McDonald’s again, and saved my
yuan! If I had known about the
mango ice cream….
So, as I finish writing this, almost one and a half hours
after I started, still no internet.
Two days out of touch is a long time after 7 weeks of being away. What would this trip have been like—for
us and for our family at home—without the internet? The immediate, daily, even hourly contact, the ability, in
fact, to see faces and talk live?
Very hard, maybe too hard to have undertaken. Not being able to follow Elinor’s week at camp is
hard! She would have hated to have Julia celebrate a birthday with
which she couldn’t have had some physical contact. When I asked Julia today what she’d say to Elinor first,
when she sees her (in a week!), she said, “Happy birthday.” There have been so many adventures, so
many experiences and gains, but some losses too. Perhaps a little more palpable tonight!
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