Qingdao and beyond

UPDATE to my previous post:
##) Wedding photo couples will be anywhere attractive. I walked along the beaches in Qingdao on one nice day and stopped counting at 40 brides. There were easily 50. Had I gone up to the church I would have found at least another 10. They seem to arrive in dresses (with jeans underneath and trainers on) in mini-buses and then all have photos taken in the same setting, explaining the huge number of wedding photo shops around some of the places I've been.


I have now left the beach, beer and BBQ haven that is Qingdao. Qingdao was a city with not huge amounts to see, but quite a lot to do in terms of just strolling around the town's German architecture and along the beaches, sampling the fantastic food (seafood and otherwise), and drinking beer for little money - this can be bought in plastic bags from street vendors. I have now also finally sampled the Tsing Tao dark beer (Tsing Tao is from Qingdao for those who don't know) - a kind of dark larger drink. The hostel there was a fantastic building (old observatory) and social setting particularly on days when the weather was good and warm. Having said that, I'm very happy to be out of the 14 bed dorm, in which 16 people were sleeping at one point. I shouldn't complain too much though - some people slept in the corridor. National holiday is not a good time to travel in China.

Having intended to go from Qingdao to Jinan by train, I was somewhat wrong footed to find all trains and buses booked. So, I headed down to the bus station at 8am to buy the last ticket for a bus to Qufu (the home of Confucius) After a delicious lunch of BBQ spiced meat, veg and bread I headed for the bus station which was easy enough to find - but only because I'd been there earlier that day, and when I arrived in Qingdao. When I finally got onto the bus I looked for my seat; seat 28. The bus had 27 seats. Sitting next to the driver's assistant at the front for my journey I waited for 8.30 and my arrival 'in' Qufu. 'In' Qufu turned out to be just off the highway turn off for Qufu. Some enterprising individuals wait there to pick up the people who are dumped in this stupid location, so my 127 Yuan ticket was pumped up to 147 by taking a 'taxi' with 5 other passengers. These passengers were Uni students at Qufu and from Qingdao, and very nicely and helpfully assisted in getting the driver to where I wanted to be - in fact they had a clearer idea of where it was than I did. More on Qufu later.