Hi! We just got back from a great six day train trip around the Shandong Province. We took the bullet train which is so comfortable and travels at 300 km/hr! The cause for a week-long break from work was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which is celebrated according to the lunar cycle - to give thanks to the moon for the changing seasons and the harvest. Really lovely! Then October 1st was National Day, so the week in between those two days is considered the Mid-Autumn Holiday. Here are some photos and stories from our trip:
Day 1 - Jinan. This well says something like "drink tea, forget your problems," in ancient Chinese script.
Just had to sneak a pic of this dude in his little shorts. He was hanging out his grandaughter's clothes in the sun on the rocks as she had gotten wet playing in the pond :)
Kids can buy rubber boots, water toys and water guns to play in all these little ponds around the spring. I'm surprised we didn't get sprayed! There aren't as many foreigners in Jinan as Qingdao, so we got a lot more attention there.
Streetside bbq in Jinan. We were invited by Brian's friend Dohar, who lives in Jinan and guided us around the city and showed us culinary specialties for a few days. BBQ is the thing in Jinan, the way seafood and beer are the thing of Qingdao. So Brian was happy :)
Here's a pic of the crew enjoying bbq! We had so much fun and met some really great folks. Thanks for the kind hospitality, Dohar!!
Day 2 - Jinan. We went to 1000 Buddha Mountain on the day of the full moon. It was really peaceful inside the park, despite there being so many people visiting for the holiday.
offerings
reclining Buddha stutue
Brian and Devil (his English name!), who we met at Dohar's dinner the night before. He offered to be our tour guide at the mountain that day which was so generous! According to a plaque at the park, this is the tallest sitting Buddha statue north of the Yangtze River.
Just driving my tank around in front of the Buddha! These little carparks for kids are such a thing in Asia - little cars, animals with wheels, tanks, etc are available for kids to ride around on.
These photos were taken inside a very impressive cave inside the park (which I have since learned is artificial). The statues and paintings inside the cave were extremely beautiful - one of the highlights of the trip.
When we first arrived in Jinan, Dohar tried to take us to a Love Hotel for our accommodations! hahaha :) He didn't seem to understand why we didn't want to stay there... but we eventually found this other cheapo and despite the creepy appearance of this bathroom pod, the room was actually ok (and the bed was much more comfortable than our bed in our apartment, which is a rock) :)
Day 3 - Qufu. This city houses the Temple and Cemetery of Confucius, and the Kong Family Mansion.
Brian enjoying a snack in snack alley (our term). Plastic bag around the bowl = less dishes to clean
Turtles represent wisdom and longevity
Confucius' Tomb. This cemetery is the largest (known) family cemetery in the world!
Flags are up everywhere for the holiday
Evening in Qufu. After walking all day long, we were able to meet up with Dohar for dinner again, as he was in town for work (he's a journalist).
Day 4 - Tai'an. We treated ourselves to a nice hotel and spent most of the day napping and recovering from a lot of walking, and since our hotel was a bit further away from the main part of the city, we didn't venture out for a walk until late afternoon.
After dinner we enjoyed a tea ceremony, where we tried two different kinds of teas and tried to chat with the tea attendant :)
Grape and peach Oreos! (we didn't try them)
Day 5 - This photo was taken right outside our hotel before we embarked on our hike of Taishan (Mount Tai)
Taishan is a sacred mountain in China and is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal. The mountain is 7200 stairs on a paved path, with an option to take a gondola and bus part of the way. These photos were all taken during our hike.
It was VERY busy on the mountain!
gondolas (we took one part of the way back down from the top)
SO MANY STAIRS! It was really funny by the time we made it to the top - everyone was so haggard (including us). Lots of crying children being carried and people who were practically walking on all fours :)
This was at the top!
Here's a photo on our gondola ride back down. We decided to gondola/bus back down because the hike from the base to the top took about 4.5 hours and our legs were feeling wobbly from stairs :)
This photo was meant to be a "before" photo of Brian in case he got food poisoning, which I was sure he would after eating at this restaurant! I'm usually not too worried about that kind of thing, but this place really freaked me out... but Brian was fine! I was expecting a repeat of our first couple of days in Manila ;)
We hiked a bit right outside our hotel on day 6, the last day of our trip. It was a nice splurge to stay there!
Day 6 - back in Jinan, where we had a 4 hour train stop-over before returning to Qingdao. Just enough time to take a little boat ride on Daming Lake and meet Dohar for one last dinner and beers.
We were lucky to have relatively nice weather during our trip, with only a few of the days being very polluted. It was so nice to have a break from work, especially for Brian, whose schedule just doubled! He is now teaching 6 periods per day and has a much heavier workload. Right now we're sitting in a cafe while he does some planning for this week. We are looking forward to the cooling weather and Fall in Qingdao! Missing the northwest leaves right about now!
xoxo
