I have officially caught everyone up for the Silk Road. These last pictures are of our trip to the Mongolian Grasslands where we stayed overnight in the gers. Also, there are a few pictures of Hohhot the city, which is located in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia (still in China). It was a great trip as you can tell by the pictures we all had a great time and experienced so many different things. I wish you all could have been there.
It might be easier for most people to simply click on the "View Album" link below the slideshow. This way you can see better quality pictures and comment on them as well. I'm sure when you see our feast at the Mongolian Grasslands you'll laugh and wonder how we ate that, but it was delicious, trust me.
Also, here are the pictures from the weekend. I hope we all don't look like a bunch of drunks but it was a beer festival, so don't blame us for holding beer in every picture. At least we were all safe.
I have been at the internet cafe for more than 4 hours now and I need to do something productive. I have some reading to get done so I think I'm going to do that for a while. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing for the National Holiday coming up this weekend. We have classes on Saturday but everyone is planning something. Had they told us earlier, we could have gotten visas to leave the country, but they told us a day before we left for Qingdao so we had limited time to plan something. Our trip to Thailand is no longer going to happen and nobody can reach a consensus about where to go and for how long. The best deal we're seeing right now is a trip to Sanya, Hainan. This is the southern-most point in China. Hainan is the Hawaii of China and Sanya has amazing sand beaches and lots of stuff to do. If the plans go through, I'll be headed there from Wednesday to Sunday, October 5th. I'll let you know about that adventure as it unfolds. Until then, have a good one.
Showing posts with label Qingdao International Beer Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qingdao International Beer Festival. Show all posts
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
My Third Chinese Adventure
I returned back to Beijing this afternoon after a great weekend in Qingdao. What a trip! Let's start with the overnight train that we had to go on. At first, we didn't mind that fact that the lights didn't turn off or the fact that the seats were really uncomfortable and practically leaned forward. We also didn't mind the fact that we were getting in at 7:20 am. But the fact that they sold at least 100+ standing tickets made the trip a little uncomfortble. If you can't quite get a mental picture going let me try and paint one for you. When we got on the train everyone was putting their belongings in the overhead holders so the isles were pretty crowded. Because this is China, people were already sitting in our seats which is fine because they moved when we asked them too. But the problem was, there wasn't anywhere to go. The isles were so packed that we figured out pretty quickly that these people were going to stand for the 8 hours to Qingdao. They were sitting on the ground, laying under our seats, squishing onto people's laps. There were people sitting on the bathroom sinks, underneath the sinks and on the floor inbetween the cars. If I had to go to the bathroom, it would have been like trying to play a game of tip-toe over peoples bodies. The conductor who checked tickets could barely snake through the hoards of people. The beverage cart never came. Sleeping was another story. Since someone was leaning on my seat, I had a great view of their backside and there were too many people to stretch out my legs. I put my head face down on the table and spent most of the night switching between that position and seat-sleeping.
When we got to Qingdao we had to buy our return tickets back. In China, you can't buy roundtrip tickets for trains, you have to buy a ticket from one destination to another. Our returning overnight train was sold out, but I'm sure that we could have gotten standing tickets (yea right). The only available tickets were early morning tickets and we tried to get everyone on the same train but ended up having to split into two trains. The rest of the day we spent napping at the hotel and eating until our friends arrived from Beijing. It was only Jim, Devon and I on the overnight train because everyone else has classes on Fridays. We met up with our Chinese friend Serena and her friends. They took us out to a pagoda on the water and afterwards we went out and had a great dinner. Tons of delicious seafood including clams, mussles, shrimp and even crab. We had a few vegetables and lots of beer. We learned all of the traditional Chinese drinking games and enjoyed challenging our Chinese friends to their own games. Most of the games involve one on one challenges like who can finish a bottle of beer faster.
We met up with our other friends at the hotel. Being in China, the hotel booked one of our reserved hotel rooms so we ended up having two rooms for 15 people. Apparently in China they dont mind how many people sleep per room. The front desk asked if we had 8 people in one room and when we said yes, the clerk wasn't even surprised. That night we all went out to a bar as a group and had a great time. The next morning we ate and headed straight to the beer festival. It was a cool festival, but not what we had expected. It wasn't as cheap as we had planned, but there were so many fun things to do. They had Hofbrauhaus from Germany (I've been to the original), they had Heineken and other imported beers and of course a huge tent for Tsingtao Beer (the beer was first owned by Germans thus the different spelling). They had tons of food and some interesting music but we had a blast. We made our own international feel by playing American drinking games. Of course, the Chinese crowded around us taking pictures, cheering us on and even joining in. The tripods and videocameras were out in full force and a Chinese newspaper took our picture for the front page. In the background of this picture, a guy is holding up his baby to get in the picture. Serena and her friends also met us there and they ended up having a great time. They really enjoyed us Americans. Around 5 o clock we headed toward the beach to continue our fun. We all took a dip in the sea and played soccer with a Chinese guy. The water wasn't the warmest but we had a great time.
We went back to the hotel to change and clean up. We went to dinner and celebrated Jeff's birthday. It was last Monday, but no one had time to celebrate because we had just returned from our Silk Road trip. We had a lot of toasts and some more seafood and finished the night by going out to a local club with our Chinese friends. Leaving Qingdao was a bummer. We all had such a great time and the weekend flew by. We were all loving the Northern California of China. I'll post some pictures when I can.
Here are some of the Jiayuguan Fort and the Hanging Wall.
Here are some pictures of Xi'an and Muslim street.
Here are some pictures of the Terracotta Warriors.
When we got to Qingdao we had to buy our return tickets back. In China, you can't buy roundtrip tickets for trains, you have to buy a ticket from one destination to another. Our returning overnight train was sold out, but I'm sure that we could have gotten standing tickets (yea right). The only available tickets were early morning tickets and we tried to get everyone on the same train but ended up having to split into two trains. The rest of the day we spent napping at the hotel and eating until our friends arrived from Beijing. It was only Jim, Devon and I on the overnight train because everyone else has classes on Fridays. We met up with our Chinese friend Serena and her friends. They took us out to a pagoda on the water and afterwards we went out and had a great dinner. Tons of delicious seafood including clams, mussles, shrimp and even crab. We had a few vegetables and lots of beer. We learned all of the traditional Chinese drinking games and enjoyed challenging our Chinese friends to their own games. Most of the games involve one on one challenges like who can finish a bottle of beer faster.
We met up with our other friends at the hotel. Being in China, the hotel booked one of our reserved hotel rooms so we ended up having two rooms for 15 people. Apparently in China they dont mind how many people sleep per room. The front desk asked if we had 8 people in one room and when we said yes, the clerk wasn't even surprised. That night we all went out to a bar as a group and had a great time. The next morning we ate and headed straight to the beer festival. It was a cool festival, but not what we had expected. It wasn't as cheap as we had planned, but there were so many fun things to do. They had Hofbrauhaus from Germany (I've been to the original), they had Heineken and other imported beers and of course a huge tent for Tsingtao Beer (the beer was first owned by Germans thus the different spelling). They had tons of food and some interesting music but we had a blast. We made our own international feel by playing American drinking games. Of course, the Chinese crowded around us taking pictures, cheering us on and even joining in. The tripods and videocameras were out in full force and a Chinese newspaper took our picture for the front page. In the background of this picture, a guy is holding up his baby to get in the picture. Serena and her friends also met us there and they ended up having a great time. They really enjoyed us Americans. Around 5 o clock we headed toward the beach to continue our fun. We all took a dip in the sea and played soccer with a Chinese guy. The water wasn't the warmest but we had a great time.
We went back to the hotel to change and clean up. We went to dinner and celebrated Jeff's birthday. It was last Monday, but no one had time to celebrate because we had just returned from our Silk Road trip. We had a lot of toasts and some more seafood and finished the night by going out to a local club with our Chinese friends. Leaving Qingdao was a bummer. We all had such a great time and the weekend flew by. We were all loving the Northern California of China. I'll post some pictures when I can.
Here are some of the Jiayuguan Fort and the Hanging Wall.
Here are some pictures of Xi'an and Muslim street.
Here are some pictures of the Terracotta Warriors.
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