National day 2013: Qingdao (moved from old blog)

 Mini-adventure part 4: Qingdao

Qingdao; whenever I have mentioned it to anyone their first response is usually "Oh, the place with the beer!" This was definitely one of my reasons for going but not completely.

After only a few hours in Qingdao it shot to being one of my favourite places (definitely somewhere to consider relocating to anyway). I arrived into Qingdao about 3pm and it only took me about 30 minutes to find my hostel. I began walking from the train station but got slightly lost and jumped into a taxi. The taxi driver took me about 200 meters and stopped, he just giggled when I looked very surprised. Anyway, after the chaos involved with finding the hostel in Xi Tang I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. 
The hostel was a beautiful building with nice clean rooms, the only down side being for the first few nights in the hostel I was the only person in the hostel. So the bar/common room was generally locked and I was left to wander about on my own. 


I soon discovered that my hostel was a ten minute walk from the beach and was on an old cobbled street on which dozens of seafood barbecue stands would set up in the evenings. The seafood, WOW! I don't think I have ever seen prawns so big or the sheer number of varieties of crab and the different ways to cook it. The most common way, which I saw all over the city, was a sort of bread crumb and beer batter which is fantastic! I ate loads of seafood during my brief four day stay and was truly gutted to be leaving.
Another of the greatest perks of Qingdao is the beer. Qingdao is the original home of China's beer, originally introduced by the German occupation the whole city has grown around the brewery, and seems genuinely proud of its alcoholic heritage. Personally I see nothing wrong with that. On almost every street corner and outside of the vast majority of shops, regardless of what they sell, exist piles of kegs just waiting for people to walk past and grab a beer. Naturally carrying a glass or bottle about the streets would be hugely impractical, so the obvious solution is to sell beer in bags and drink it through straws. A gimmick maybe, but I still think it is a fantastic idea. 


I believe you can guess....

One of my little excursions in Qingdao was to the beer museum (naturally) which is located at the bottom of a long and busy Beer Street. Outside of the museum are hundreds of tables and bars all selling seafood and beer. What else do you need in life? The museum is only small but is really interesting, the majority of the buildings involved are all about the history or the marketing of the beer, and then the tour goes through the current brewery. Half way through the tour I was given a sample of "raw" beer. I am not 100% certain what that means but it was bloody lovely. Then the tour continues for  a little longer before hitting souvenir shops and being given another beer. A fantastic way to spend an afternoon!
Otherwise I did very little in Qingdao; sitting on the beach reading my book, swimming in freezing cold water, wandering about the older parts of the city, eating giant prawns and drinking from plastic bags. I loved my time in Qingdao and I am seriously considering it as a future home for The Wandering English Teacher. 
I was gutted to have to leave but perked up immediately when remembering my next stop is Beijing.