Qingdao - a city I had been looking forward to

2nd October 2013

To my Chinese friends, happy National Day.

Having given up a Chinese summer to return to a Melbourne winter to visit family and friends during Aug/Sep, I am now back in China for a 6th year! But, am I likely to see a full year through?

In the short time back I've met up with some friends and, with the help of a past student, spent a very pleasant day travelling to, and climbing, Jin Long Si mountain in Dalian - all 999 steps to the top!.

Last weekend there was an IELTS examination in Qingdao: a city I had been looking forward to visiting - it didn't disappoint. An IELTS colleague and I stayed an extra day and explored some of the sights:

• the outdoor food streets in the old town, including albino snails (yum!)
• St Michael's Catholic Church - built in 1932-34 under the guidance of a German architect - many newly weds having photos taken
• Slightly pebbly beach, but in city area
• Qingtao Beer museum - showing the influence which the Japanese and the Germans had on the company - can you spot the difference between the Japanese and German labels?
• No. 1 Beach - first built in 1901 by the Germans after they invaded Qingdao
• Badaguan Scenic Resort - German castle with surrounding area showcasing magnificent classic European houses on treed big blocks, built when Qingdao was a German protectorate

Pebbly beach, in city area.

Qingtao Beer museum

No. 1 Beach

Badaguan Scenic Resort - German castle

Boredom has not set in yet: too much of my time has been spent on coming to grips with my new Samsung Galaxy S4 - it has many features and options that I'm trying to understand before I settle on a few that I deem to be useful.

The rest of my time is going into preparing an IELTS Speaking presentation for my old university: my intention was to deliver it to any interested students of the past two years, but when I asked permission from the school they decided to make it mandatory for the freshmen to also attend. So now I'll be giving three presentations - oh well, it keeps me interested and busy.

Zai jian for now... Renzo