GUESS WHERE

I've taken a little trip, can you guess where?

For those of you who said, Qingdao, the beer capital of China - you are correct!

Lanzhou was getting a little bit tedious so I'm spending a week here for a change of scene.

From what I've seen so far, I'm really liking the vibe here. It's a Tier 2 city but being on the east coast, it is relatively developed. Colonised by the Germans (hence the beer), occupied by the Japanese, and across the sea from Korea, there are a lot of different influences. Case in point, I managed to go almost 2 days without eating any Chinese food. I inadvertently ate Japanese up until tonight's dinner!

What has struck me most is how friendly the people are. Waitresses make eye contact, smile, sometimes even attempt conversation! This does not happen often in China, and never happens in Lanzhou. Case in point, tonight I ate dinner on the street, and had a good chat while my skewers were cooking. Afterwards he escorted me to a table (no one got this treatment!) and later enquired that it was to my liking. Incidentally also my first Tsingtao in Qingdao!

Left to right - mature chinese chives, eggplant, tofu, quails eggs. All deep fried!!! (It will be boot camp when I get back to Lanzhou) but oh so delicious.

On my list of things to do while I'm here - The Beer Museum, Olympic Sailing Venue, German Old Town, numerous Japanese and Korean restaurants (I'm going to make the most of it while it's available, makes for a nice change!) I may even attempt a swim at the beach!