The flight from Hangzhou took around 1 hour. Fiona, Gavin and 3 other friends were there to pick us up.
Fiona had been complaining about how cold Qingdao was. So the minute we arrived, we changed into the thick jackets she had bought for all of us.
Here's Fiona the human dumpling showing us how to survive a Qingdao winter. she had on a wooly beanie, three woollen tops, a duck down jacket, a thick ass woollen long johns, a pair of jeans, boots and thick gloves. the cow still looked thin. Biatch.
Catching up on gossip. Check out fiona's gossipy face.
Time for a lesson again:
Qingdao is a city in eastern Shandong Province. It is a major seaport, naval base and industrial center. It's main claim to fame? Tsingtao Beer! It has a population of 8 million people. Qingdao was also the city where all the sailing took place for Olympics 2008. Accordingly, it made sense that there were reminders of the Olympics everywhere.
Tsingtao Brewery:
Giant goblet of Tsingtao beer, anyone?
Lunchtime and Gavin took us to a seafood restaurant by the beach. The restaurant had lots of fishes in their aquariums and I spied these carnivorous fishes. Mum used to keep some as pets and she would hunt down little cicaks (lizards) for their dinners. Fiona and Mel hated these little creatures so one of our (ok, mine) favourite childhood games was Make Fiona/Mel Squeal by brandishing one of these poor creatures at them. Good times.
One of the things i noticed about chinese restaurants (although they would just call them restaurants in China and drop the word chinese heheh... I''ll tell you a joke in a minute) was that : If we ever hang our jackets over the back of the chair, the waitresses always always ALWAYS put a cover over the chair like below. I guess to make sure they don't accidentally drop a plate of sweet and sour pork on it and having to fork out moolah for dry cleaning bills.
Another Olympics reminder:
The restaurant was quite fun in that they had an ordering area where all the dishes available in the menu were laid out to make the whole ordering experience a 3D one.
Rows and rows of food going Pick me! Pick me!. Another good thing was that they didn't look at me like I was a freak or worse, told me not to, when I walked around taking photos of everything.
Duck's necks and heads. Don't knock it till you've tried it. So good... i mean the necks.
Never seen this before - Blood Bird's Nest Soup.
Viv and Fiona checking out the seafood dishes.
Garlic as a main, anyone? Cheap at RMB 8 a dish and so it should be.
Chicken hearts were RMB 28 per dish.
Monica's favourite fruit, papaya with bird's nest soup.
Expensive sea cucumber soup. I'm not a fan. It was spongey.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the joke. Ok not really jokes, more like stories.
First one is to do with Friends, the American sitcom. I'm such a Friends addict I can link lots of real life situations to a Friends episode. Ah here can attest to this. Anyway in this case, Ross had to go to China and he broke the news to the others.
Ross: Hi.
Joey: Hey!
Chandler: Hey!
Ross: (sigh)....I have to go to China.
Joey: The country?
Ross: No no, this big pile of dishes in my mom's breakfront.
Joey: Hey!
Chandler: Hey!
Ross: (sigh)....I have to go to China.
Joey: The country?
Ross: No no, this big pile of dishes in my mom's breakfront.
Heheh... anyway back to reality. On the trip from hangzhou, we were served drinks and snacks midair. Jennifer asked for Chinese tea and was met with funny looks. The air-stewardess then said, "You are not a local, are you?". Methinks they call Chinese tea tea around here.
Where's the food?????
Gavin was in charge of ordering and he did a very good job because this was Dad's favourite meal throughout the whole trip. Then again, it costed RMB 2000 so I would expect it to be nice.
First up - lamb cooked on skewers (so tender and juicy!!), cabbage and prawns.
Not sure what was the dish on the left as I steered clear of it. Dish on the right was some standard fare veges.
More veges.
Can't remember what this mushy dish was now but I think it was made from bean paste? It was very nice actually.
Gavin posing with one of the giant snails (???) he ordered.
Dad liked them too.
Plate of the snails.... they were an acquired taste for sure. Bit chewy, bit bitter.
Viv's finger acting as my model here for comparison purposes.
Nice fish:
Fried mushrooms.... not a fan:
Tofu dish. Tofu is a must order dish for the Hii family. I get cravings for it if i haven't had tofu for a while:
Abalone soup:
Yummilicious crabs in a slightly sweeey sauce:
This was the last dish. May have been eggplant but not sure because I'd stopped eating by then. M.u.s.t s.t.o.p e.a.t.i.n.g.........
Gavin telling us we looked anorexic and to eat up!
After we all waddled out of the restaurant, we headed off to Zhan Qiao 栈桥 to walk off all the food. The 440 meter strip stretches into the sea and was the first wharf in Qingdao. An octagonal pavilion stands at the end of the pier. The pier itself was built in 1891 during the time when Qingdao was a German colony while the pavilion at the end was built in 1930.
Next up we went to the Qingdao International Sailing Centre, the Olympic sailing venue. Apparently the structure in the photo below is quite famous but my googling skills failed to come up with its name.
The place was HUGE and there were street vendors peddling their wares. This lady was selling keyrings with a twist. Instead of a cute Hello Kitty (which I would totally buy!), you get a live!!!! tiny goldfish swimming around in a tiny bag of water. There was another dude selling this and he said the fish would eventually run out of oxygen and die! We were shocked! This lady had a more humane explanation. There was (apparently) a small amount of food and oxygen in the bag and once used up, all you have to do is release the fish into a bowl.
It wouldn't be an outing without a snack stop, would it?
Flags of the countries that took part in the sailing events. Feel free to enter me in for Photo of the Year competition.
It was freezing so we were glad when the end was in sight and we got to jump in the cars and head off to Gao Mi 高密, Gavin's hometown - a city about one hour's drive away from Qingdao. Fiona and Gavin's wedding reception was to take place in Gao Mi so we stayed there for 2 nights.
We met the whole extended family for dinner that night and it was quite an experience. First of all, Shandong people are well-known for being great drinkers so they spent most of the nights proposing toasts in our honour and emptying their glasses at every toast. Man, they were a friendly bunch and made all of us felt very welcomed. Secondly, they were a traditional bunch so there were rules when it came to who sits where.
The most senior host, in this case Gavin's grandpa sat at the head of the table.
The first VIP, aka Dad, sat next to him on his right.
HANG ON!!! I was a guest. I was the oldest guest after Mum and Dad. How come I didn't score a seat next to the host?!!!!??? What the! I think I've been had! I protest.
Darn you Jayden. Get outta my seat! But they probably thought I was the youngest sister so I should forgive them.
I didn't take too many photos of the food because most of them were the same old same old. Alright... it was really because I didn't want them to think I'm some kind of photo-taking compulsive freak. But I still took my duties as a blogger seriously and took photos of the more unusual food for your viewing pleasures.
Clear soup with the spiky sea cucumber. Yupp, not a fan.
Individual serving of rice and abalone. Yum
Shandong people don't really eat rice. They prefer buns and this was quite interesting. It was a giant bun with different layers inside, made from different ingredients. But the layers all tasted the same - plain. Needed peanut butter..... mmmm peanut butter.
Another Shandong specialty was Fried Buns 煎包 - steamed pork buns with a crispy fried bottom. Mum and Dad lurrvvved this.
Check out the decoration on the giant lazy susan. It was made of rice and various other coloured beans. Pretty cool huh?
Dad got on really well with Gavin's dad.
Jayden drunk a LOT of maotai 茅台 (China's most famous white wine with an alcohol content of 53%!). So when he got back to the hotel, Mum helped him "kouk" - an ancient Chinese remedy where you scrape someone's back in certain parts to help relieve headaches, flus, etc. Don't ask me for the theory behind it all. All I can tell you is that it works! If you are sick, then the area being scraped will turn a poisonous looking dark red and if you aren't, it's a light pinkish colour.
We stayed at *some* hotel.... can't make out the name from the slippers.
Mum and Dad stayed in a suite with living room and dining room area, bedroom, walk in wardrobe area and bathroom. This was their bedroom.
Living room area:
Me and Viv's room:
Whle it was no suite, our room did come equipped with the cutest water cooler.... It was sooo tiny. I forgot to use it though.
The hotel lobby:
The day after the wedding reception (separate wedding post to come), we headed back to Qingdao to catch our flight to Beijing. Check out the heavy fog on the highway enroute to the airport. Luckily we made it there in one piece.
Last stop: Beijing.
Not sure what was the dish on the left as I steered clear of it. Dish on the right was some standard fare veges.
More veges.
Can't remember what this mushy dish was now but I think it was made from bean paste? It was very nice actually.
Gavin posing with one of the giant snails (???) he ordered.
Dad liked them too.
Plate of the snails.... they were an acquired taste for sure. Bit chewy, bit bitter.
Viv's finger acting as my model here for comparison purposes.
Nice fish:
Fried mushrooms.... not a fan:
Tofu dish. Tofu is a must order dish for the Hii family. I get cravings for it if i haven't had tofu for a while:
Abalone soup:
Yummilicious crabs in a slightly sweeey sauce:
This was the last dish. May have been eggplant but not sure because I'd stopped eating by then. M.u.s.t s.t.o.p e.a.t.i.n.g.........
Gavin telling us we looked anorexic and to eat up!
After we all waddled out of the restaurant, we headed off to Zhan Qiao 栈桥 to walk off all the food. The 440 meter strip stretches into the sea and was the first wharf in Qingdao. An octagonal pavilion stands at the end of the pier. The pier itself was built in 1891 during the time when Qingdao was a German colony while the pavilion at the end was built in 1930.
Next up we went to the Qingdao International Sailing Centre, the Olympic sailing venue. Apparently the structure in the photo below is quite famous but my googling skills failed to come up with its name.
The place was HUGE and there were street vendors peddling their wares. This lady was selling keyrings with a twist. Instead of a cute Hello Kitty (which I would totally buy!), you get a live!!!! tiny goldfish swimming around in a tiny bag of water. There was another dude selling this and he said the fish would eventually run out of oxygen and die! We were shocked! This lady had a more humane explanation. There was (apparently) a small amount of food and oxygen in the bag and once used up, all you have to do is release the fish into a bowl.
It wouldn't be an outing without a snack stop, would it?
Flags of the countries that took part in the sailing events. Feel free to enter me in for Photo of the Year competition.
It was freezing so we were glad when the end was in sight and we got to jump in the cars and head off to Gao Mi 高密, Gavin's hometown - a city about one hour's drive away from Qingdao. Fiona and Gavin's wedding reception was to take place in Gao Mi so we stayed there for 2 nights.
We met the whole extended family for dinner that night and it was quite an experience. First of all, Shandong people are well-known for being great drinkers so they spent most of the nights proposing toasts in our honour and emptying their glasses at every toast. Man, they were a friendly bunch and made all of us felt very welcomed. Secondly, they were a traditional bunch so there were rules when it came to who sits where.
The most senior host, in this case Gavin's grandpa sat at the head of the table.
The first VIP, aka Dad, sat next to him on his right.
The second VIP, aka Mum, sat next to him on his right.
The second senior host, aka Gavin's Dad, sat across the table directly opposite the grandpa.
The third VIP, aka Jayden (SEXIST!!!!), sat next to the dad on his right.
The last VIP seat went to Gavin's uncle and he sat next to the dad on his left.
HANG ON!!! I was a guest. I was the oldest guest after Mum and Dad. How come I didn't score a seat next to the host?!!!!??? What the! I think I've been had! I protest.
Darn you Jayden. Get outta my seat! But they probably thought I was the youngest sister so I should forgive them.
I didn't take too many photos of the food because most of them were the same old same old. Alright... it was really because I didn't want them to think I'm some kind of photo-taking compulsive freak. But I still took my duties as a blogger seriously and took photos of the more unusual food for your viewing pleasures.
Clear soup with the spiky sea cucumber. Yupp, not a fan.
Individual serving of rice and abalone. Yum
Shandong people don't really eat rice. They prefer buns and this was quite interesting. It was a giant bun with different layers inside, made from different ingredients. But the layers all tasted the same - plain. Needed peanut butter..... mmmm peanut butter.
Another Shandong specialty was Fried Buns 煎包 - steamed pork buns with a crispy fried bottom. Mum and Dad lurrvvved this.
Check out the decoration on the giant lazy susan. It was made of rice and various other coloured beans. Pretty cool huh?
Dad got on really well with Gavin's dad.
Jayden drunk a LOT of maotai 茅台 (China's most famous white wine with an alcohol content of 53%!). So when he got back to the hotel, Mum helped him "kouk" - an ancient Chinese remedy where you scrape someone's back in certain parts to help relieve headaches, flus, etc. Don't ask me for the theory behind it all. All I can tell you is that it works! If you are sick, then the area being scraped will turn a poisonous looking dark red and if you aren't, it's a light pinkish colour.
We stayed at *some* hotel.... can't make out the name from the slippers.
Mum and Dad stayed in a suite with living room and dining room area, bedroom, walk in wardrobe area and bathroom. This was their bedroom.
Living room area:
Me and Viv's room:
Whle it was no suite, our room did come equipped with the cutest water cooler.... It was sooo tiny. I forgot to use it though.
The hotel lobby:
The day after the wedding reception (separate wedding post to come), we headed back to Qingdao to catch our flight to Beijing. Check out the heavy fog on the highway enroute to the airport. Luckily we made it there in one piece.
Last stop: Beijing.
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