Ok, so because I'm behind I'm going to do this blog a little differently.  I recently published a first person narrative article about our trip to Qingdao on China.org.cn. 

Below is the text of that story.  I will however give a few more photos so you can see what we experienced.
I expected warm sun, cool breezes and possibly working on my tan. We were, after all, going to the beach. But when we stepped off the train platform in Qingdao, warm sunshine did not greet us. Rather, a thick wet fog weighed me down as my group trotted toward our hotel.

Qingdao is a beautiful city, and the mist added to the mystery of exploring a new place. There was a hint of the unexpected that left my initial impression lacking. I wanted to know more.

In a city where Western architecture still lingers from when the Germans occupied, Qingdao is a perfect example of the blending of cultures and histories.

I was told one thing repeatedly before heading to Qingdao: Eat the seafood – it's fresh and delicious. That advice did not disappoint. All the fish we had was every bit as delicious as anticipated. Plates were empty and bellies satisfied at the end of every meal in Qingdao. The food alone was worth the trip.

We also went to the outskirts of Qingdao to Laoshan, the tallest coastal mountain in China, for some hiking and to enjoy a combination of mountains and beach. Clouds formed at the top of the mountain, cooling off hikers and creating a view that was simply spectacular.

The hike wasn't demanding, but it involved a lot of stairs. By the time we finished the hour-long trek up, we were all dripping with sweat from the humidity. For the faint of heart, there is a cable car taking passengers over the trees to the top – without the sweaty workout.

The climb made us look forward to relaxing with the sand and surf. After taking in the views, we made our way to the beach, where a thick bloom of green seaweed awaited us.

Qingdao this time of the year is overrun with the seaweed. When we were there last week, the bloom was so large that it blanketed the blue waters with a thick green layer. As we were relaxing on the sand, most of the bloom had come ashore.

Some parts of Qingdao were more covered than others, but cleanup efforts were everywhere. Garbage trucks hauling the heavy mass of green away drove up and down the shores. Men heaved bags of the algae up from the walks to trucks on the roads above.

But even the algae couldn't ruin a perfect day on the beach. With sand between my toes and a towel outstretched, I was able to relax and unwind. The perfect ending to the day.

A trip to Qingdao isn't complete without a tour of the Tsingtao brewery and a meal on Beer Street. The popular Chinese beer has been around for more than 100 years, having a rich history, including going from German to Chinese control.

Touring the facility and tasting fresh beer capped off the trip with a memorable finish. With full bellies, rested minds and wonderful memories, we boarded the train back to Beijing – rejuvenated and ready to take on whatever came next.

There it was.  Grey rocks poking up through the lush green mountainside.  The Wall snaking along the mountain ridge and down into the valley.  Grey smog added to the mystery of this wall and I found myself lost in thought. The wall had captivated my imagination and I found myself thinking of the men who built this wonder of the world.  How did they manage to lug those huge stones all the way up the mountainside.  And what of the men who gave their lives, and the families who were devastated by the loss of  fathers and husbands.  With one glance through a dirty bus window while on the way to somewhere else, my mind was stolen away by the Great Wall.  Little did I know how much a day hiking it would captivate my heart and let me fall in love with the history of this place.

One weekend after my first sighting of the Great Wall we returned to Yanqing by train to hike it.  Last year, one of the interns at China.org.cn went to the wall and stayed at this place called Great Wall Fresh.  Apparently several years back an American hiker ran onto the Chen Family farm in search of shelter from a downpour after coming down from hiking the Great Wall.  After receiving incredible hospitality he decided to help the family turn their generosity into a small business. Great Wall Fresh was born.  Five years later my roommates and I arrived at the Chen house for an unforgettable experience.

Getting off the train we were immediately met by Mr. Chen himself.  It's not as if the 5 foreigners getting off the train were hard to spot.  Mr. Chen met us with eyes that smiled, a grin from ear to ear and a warmth that made it seem as if we'd known him for years.  With lines etched on his face showing the wear of years toiling his family farm, he welcomed us into his home and made us feel a part of the family.

That night for dinner we ate the first of what would be three magnificent meals that weekend. Home grown vegetables, fresh roasted almonds, salads and a pork and potato stew filled our bellies and left us satisfied and sleepy.  That night I didn't sleep well.  It must have been the excitement of what was to come on the wall the next day.  I found myself awake before the sun, but remembered what a friend had told me.  She said that right before the sun rises is the best time to see the most stars in the night sky.  When I looked up, I was in awe.  You never see the stars in Beijing, because of the lights, but out in the country, there were so many stars.  I was overcome with a stillness that can't readily be expressed in words. 

The next day we headed off towards the Wall.  We'd been forewarned the night before by three Americans who hiked the wall the day we arrived that the hiking would be steep, exhausting and completely amazing.  They were right on all accounts.


We hiked for about four hours on parts of the Wall that had not been refinished.  We hiked up steep inclines, up to 80 degrees - trying to find our footing on narrow pieces of rubble.  But at the top of these ancient ruins we saw views of China that are enough to make you fall in love with the country.  It was a great day, but the hike was easily the most intense hike I've ever been on in my life.  I wouldn't change a thing.

This weekend was a blast! We started things off with a fun dinner with some friends Audrey has who were visiting Beijing from Shanghai.  They are students at Fudan University, and part of the Holland Fellows program Audrey is a member of at App State University.  Daniel, Audrey and I met up with Zoey, Peggy, Nathan and Robert to eat at a Sichuan restaurant a little ways away from our apartment.  The food was delicious, but I knew it would be when we had to wait an hour to get a table.

While we were waiting, we decided to explore the shopping mall nearby, and venture into the Carrefour store (read: French Wal-Mart).  This store put Wal-Mart to shame!  We found a bunch of American granola bars and breakfast foods... needless to say we'll be shopping there again.  In the mall we figured we'd have a snack before dinner.  It ended up that we had desert first, but we're in China where it doesn't matter, right?

Nathan, Peggy and Zoey took us to a stand called Beard Papa which sells cream puffs.  They fill the puff with different flavors of cream, and man I've been craving them ever since.  Yum!  The dinner we ate was also incredible.  It was a bit pricy, but to taste a new cuisine for the first time, I think we did it right. We had pork, chicken, potatoes, fish, vegetables and more.  I was so stuffed when we headed home!

Saturday morning, we woke up relatively early to head out to the Ming Tombs.  A taxi and one long bus ride (which I slept through, oops!) later we arrived in the foothills of green, lush mountains.  The architecture of the park where the tombs are is exactly what people expect when they think China.  Rooftops with the edges that curve upward poked through the trees and stone walkways created paths leading from the museum area to the tombs themselves.  I was amazed by the forethought of the emperors to begin the construction of such a huge plot of burial grounds long before their deaths.

As we finished walking around the second tomb area, thunder boomed in the distance.  Before we knew it, a storm was surging over the mountains and filling the sky with dark, ominous clouds.  We walked quickly to the bus, but luckily the storm skirted to the side of where we were.  Apparently, though, the storm was a nasty one.  In Beijing, torrential rain and hail pounded the area near where we live.  By the time we were home though, the storm had passed leaving clean air and blue skies. Guess we timed that one right!

Saturday night I went out to a part of town called Wudaokou, which apparently means "Fifth Rail Station" or something like that, for the first time since we've been here.  A few of the American students we met last week joined us and we went to a dance club called Sensation.  It wasn't too busy, but man do I miss the "no smoking indoors" law we have in NC.  We danced for hours, and had a really good night.  I enjoyed loosening up and dancing for a little while.  Thankfully, our Sunday plans didn't involve an 8am alarm.

After sleeping in, my first time actually sleeping in since I've been here, I made lunch for myself before heading out to meet up with some of our friends at their university.  We met up with Cleaire, Jassum, Branden and Lutong and headed out towards the Olympic park.  The architecture of the Water Cube and Bird's Nest are definitely something worth seeing.  I was surprised to see that the Water Cube is somewhat sheer, so when the sun was setting behind it, you could see the bolts holding the panels of glass together.  We took TONS of photos, goofy, candid, posed.  We were complete tourists, but that's ok.  Some of the chinese people even took photos of us because we stood out like sore thumbs.

That's all I've got.  I'm off to another week at work. I know I'm writing at least one story, but we'll see what else I can drum up.

So after speaking at the Communications University of China last week, one of the girls invited Lauren Russell and me to join them on a weekend outing.  Because it is the spring Dragon Boat Festival, or Dwanwu, everyone had three days off.  We gladly agreed to experience life outside the hustle and bustle of Beijing.

Nicole, Jesse, Wu and Zhong met us early in the morning at the long distance bus station called Zongzhimen.  It was our first time truly navigating the city on our own, so one of our colleagues wrote on a business card how to get to a nearby subway station so we could navigate from there.  We left with just over an hour to get there, unsure of how bad the traffic and subway system would be.  The ride to the bus station only took 30 minutes so we swinged into the McDonalds so Lauren could get a caffeine fix.  I was feeling awake, so decided to just sit and listen to the same Chinese song (or maybe it was an advertisement) play over and over again inside the McDonalds.  We slowly made our way to the bus line, and believe me it was a line - I've never seen that many people packed so closely together waiting for a bus.  It's as if the Chinese have very little concept of personal space.  They pack in the subways (which I can understand) but even if they are waiting in line, they act as if they think that by slamming in close together and touching the person in front of them that somehow it will make the bus or whatever they are waiting for come sooner or something.

It was kind of stormy the morning we left for Miyun County.  But after riding the 80 km outside of Beijing, the air was cleaner and the sky was blue.  We got lucky for sure.  Nicole had planned every aspect of the weekend and written a detailed itenerary, which I appreciated because I find it nice to at least have some sort of initial game plan.  After getting off the bus, she was approached by a van driver who uttered something in Chinese to her.  Before I knew it we were piled into this little van and driving in what I thought was the direction of the restaurant where we were supposed to have lunch.   During the van ride, Nicole and the driver seemed to have a heated discussion or debate about soemthing.  Of course, the entire conversation was in Chinese, but by body language and voice levels, I assumed neither party was entirely happy with the other.  Only later did Nicole tell us that the driver essentially refused to take us to the restaurant we asked to go to, but instead "recommended" a different one and drove us there.  All ended well though, the food at lunch was excellent, but I'm convinced the driver must make commission from the owner there.  For lunch we had hot tea, whole fish from the nearby reservoir, a soup with tofu, fried shrimp (i did not eat these), fish tail, pancakes and some sort of bitter green vegetable.  Honestly, as someone who doesn't eat a lot of fish to begin with the idea of putting a giant fish (or half fish, as the case was... we got the head) on a plate whole and digging in with chopsticks kind of revolted me.  But I was pleasantly surprised, the fish was DELICIOUS, and I left the meal completely stuffed.  To go to the bathroom after our meal involved walking through the back of the restaurant and outside.  I'm so glad I did this after our meal, because we looked into the kitchens and storage rooms and they were filthy.  They would not pass health inspection standards in the US.

Once we'd all filled our stomachs and picked some unripe apricots (they were sour ,but interesting to try) from the nearby tree, the driver drove us to the Reservoir. Here's the thing about the reservoir.  It's beautiful.  The water is clean and blue, it reflects the images of the mountains and trees along its shores and stands in stark contrast to the smog and business of Beijing.  The reservoir also provides all the potable water for Beijing, and a couple other nearby cities.  Because of this, the Chinese are incredibly protective of the water and terrified that someone might poison it if they get too close.  I can understand not wanting people to swim in the water, or urinate in it or anything, but they don't even want you within throwing distance of the shores.  Naturally, our group wanted to get close to the water to take pictures because it was a beautiful place and we wanted evidence of the memories we were making.  We had to pay 10 yuan to a woman running a fruit stand to let us in to the gate to the reservoir park area, I'm convinced she's paying off the police in the area.  We were told to walk along the paths and if the Waterway Patrol ask you, say you are picking fruit.  Sure enough about 2 minutes into the walk we were stopped.  We told them the story, but they said to go back.  Instead we walked into the garden and because apparently the male police said we could go down but the women were not as friendly.  Eventually we made our way nearer to the water where the police hollered at our friends again saying "we told you to go back up."  Even with the tense encounters with the police, the views were worth it.

After our hike to the Reservoir, we waited on the side of the road for the Hostel owner to come pick us up.  We bought some apricots from the fruit stand for very cheap, and they were so delicious.  Even though we'd only spent a little bit of time together, I can already tell some big differences in our four Chinese friends.

Nicole: Her Chinese name is He Junqing. She is 20 and is almost finished with her first year at CUC.  She's got strong features and short black hair.  Her laugh is infectious, and she desperately wants to make sure everyone around her has a good time.  She meticulously planned our weekend, and confessed she had lost sleep worrying that the trip would not be as fun as it ended up being.

Jessie:  Jessie's Chinese name is Chen Wenjie.  She is 19 years old and one of the most beautiful young women I've seen here so far.  She's got these big eyes and soft features.  She's soft spoken, but kind and generous. She invited me to her hometown of Guanxi after her school lets out in late July, and I'm really considering taking her up on it and going.

Zhong Yinyan is a 20 year old freshman.  She's somewhat reserved, but has a beautiful smile and is very easy going. She doesn't have an English name, but is very interested in asking questions about America and getting to know us as people.  I very much enjoyed my time getting to know her.

Wu Xujun is very quiet.  She almost seemed disengaged or disinterested, as if something was weighing on her heavily.  She's kind-hearted and seems painfully shy.  I honestly didn't get much of a chance to get to know her because she always was wondering off away from the group and had headphones in when we were together.

The hostel we stayed at was a family-run hostel.  We had two rooms, one of which slept 4-5 people on one large bed called a Kang. They are traditionally found in the north of China, and during the winter fires are lit underneath them to warm the bed platform from below.  The hostel was relatively clean, the people were friendly, but the bed was very hard.  One woman was making Zongzi, a traditional food eaten during the Dragon Boat festival.  It was neat to see it being prepared by hand.

Our dinner that night was interesting, and very good.  We ate tomatoes with sugar, wild greens, small reservoir fish, shrimp, veggie and tofu soup, Chicken in some sort of brown sauce, bell peppers with pork, and eggplant.  The food was really good, and by the end I was stuffed.  The food might sound good, and simple enough, but let me tell you - it wasn't.  The fish were whole, and eating them required not only finding the meat but sucking the meat off the bones before spitting the bone onto the table.  It's really an attractive way to eat.  The chicken, too is served whole.  It's as if they took a giant knife to the chicken, chopped it up and threw it in the bowl.  Lauren reached into the bowl and pulled out a chicken claw... after much prodding she decided to go for it and gave it a taste.  She said it "tasted like chicken," but that there really wasn't much meat.  When I reached in, I came up with the chicken head.  There was NO way that it was going in my mouth, and our Chinese friends said they didn't eat it either, so we threw it to the puppy.  It was hard to know exactly which piece of meat you were getting, and you always had to suck it off the bone.  It tasted good, but was an experience for sure.  I was so exhausted by the end of the day  after walking around the reservoir, the village and all the travel that I fell fast asleep pretty early.  

The next morning we woke up to begin our day of hiking.  We went to a Chinese National Tourist attraction called Black Dragon Pond.  I figured that getting there at 10:30 in the morning would help us beat some of the heat, but I was mistaken.  Who ever said the suburbs weren't as hot must have been crazy, because I found the park to be very hot.  We walked along a path in a gorge for about 20 minutes before the "hiking" set in.  I use the quotes because the entire way was paved with stones, but in some of the areas we were climbing pretty steep staircases up to different pools and waterfalls.  These waterfalls must have been beautiful before the climate of the region shifted and became much drier.  I was underwhelmed by the water, but let me tell you how beautiful the views  were.  I can't even count the number of times I said, "wow, this is breathtaking," to Lauren.  And it was.  Towering mountains with yellow-colored rock cliffs surrounded us.  Green trees filled out the mountains and the valleys, and contrasted with the pure blue of the sky, it was really magnificent.  I had thought I'd have to travel so much further than just an hour outside of the city to find such beauty.


We ate watermelon and cucumbers for lunch while inside the park, and the meal was light, filling and utterly refreshing.  After lunch we made our way out of the park and began the trek home.  We all were exhausted but I know the memories and new friends I made this weekend will stay with me for a long time.  I'm so thankful Nicole and Jessie invited "the Laurens" to join them on their mini holiday.