Just like Home-The Qingdao Weekend

The title of our blog post this week, "Just like home-The Qingdao Weekend" is a reference to the climate on the Oregon coast.  When it gets hot inland, Portlanders head West. It was just like that for us Friday, Saturday and Sunday as we traveled East to the coast.  The weather was cool and it rained and rained and rained.  Given that the temperatures in Jinan were in the mid 90's, it was a pleasant relief from the heat.

Before we talk about our experience in Qingdao, we update you on a few other things.

 This was taken last Sunday during Priesthood Meeting at church in Jinan.  We meet in a hotel room where a BYU couple lives.  After our worship service together, the men and women met separately for a meeting.  There is very little sitting space, other than the main living room, so the men "relaxed" as they listened to the lesson over Skype!  David Cox is in the back and Wayne Clarke in the front!

 Tuesday evening most of the BYU teachers had dinner in a private room at the Central Campus Faculty "Restaurant".  We used our "meal credits" which we receive from SDU for each day we teach.   This was to honor some of our "helpers" that make life easier for us in Jinan.  Eva is in the blue outfit in the front.  She is Zina Cox's co-teacher but has been so willing to haul everyone in her car, buy train tickets, interpret Chinese signs, etc.  Lily, our young adult friend, is in the back next to Kathy (our Chinese Canadian church member). 

 

 Nancy recalled her college days in the broadcast booth when she and Stan were asked to record English dialogue for a junior high English test.  We did a similar recording in January.  This one was much easier as there were no Chinese cities to pronounce.  It was all English!

 

 All the BYU teachers in Jinan, plus Kathy and her son from church, decided to go on a weekend excursion to Qingdao.  It is a seaport on the eastern part of Shandong Province and includes a China naval base and is home to the Tsingtao Brewery.  We were hoping to enjoy the beach and "cooler" temperatures, as Jinan has been in the 90's the last week.  We definitely had our wish along with a lot of rain!.  We did enjoy meeting with the other BYU teachers in Qingdao and they were so kind to host us.  This is a view of greenhouses along the way.  Shandong Province is a major producer of food for China.  Upon our arrival we were able to hire a van to haul all 8 of us to the hotel, which was much cheaper than going by taxi.

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Nancy made use of her time on the high speed train to "correct" autobiographical writing assignments.  Wayne and Libby Clarke are in the background.  We love traveling by high speed train.

 

 Hansen, Kathy's son, enjoyed his huge hamburger at Koronas, a western style restaurant which the BYU teachers enjoyed taking us to Friday night.  Pat and Harold Rust from Lake Oswego, Oregon are behind Hansen talking to Stan.  (We did not know the Rusts prior to coming with the BYU CTP).

 

Early Saturday morning we met the bus at the entrance to Qingdao University.  All of the BYU teachers in Shandong Province and a number of staff and families from the two universities in Qingdao boarded and traveled about 45 minutes to the International Horticulture Exposition.  We had no idea how big this Expo was...many acres!!  The city dedicated a huge area for the exhibition and built many buildings just for the event.  It was the former site of a mining operation.  The entire Expo was a little like the Olympics and represents a significant investment in the economy of Qingdao.  This coastal city was selected as the "most livable city" in China in 2009.  We have to agree.  It is much nicer than Jinan.

 

Below are a number of pictures we took at the Exposition.

 

 This was a building in the Thailand exhibit.

There was no Chinese holiday this weekend, but it was still very crowded.  The greenery reminded us of Oregon.

This was the Holland display and exhibit.

This gal was offering samples of pears from Holland.  One of the BYU teachers from Qingdao found her student working at this booth!

 Notice the sculptured frogs and water lilies. 

Indoor botanical gardens.  Since it was raining, we liked this part of the Exposition.

 

Some of the gardens inside.

 

After spending about 5 hours walking the property, we returned to the bus and went back to our hotel.  Most of us chose to tour downtown Qingdao with the local BYU teachers even though it was raining heavily.  We didn't think we would ever have the chance to be there again, so we braved the elements.  We're glad we did though it took quite some time to dry out our clothes and shoes!!

 

 In downtown Qingdao you will find the Olympic Sailing center. 

During the summer Olympics in 2008 some of the water events were held here.  It was the only other location outside of Beijing that awarded Olympic medals.

 There are miles of "promenade" along the beaches.  Behind us you can see the Yellow Sea.  That red structure is quite important  to the region.  , According to the treaty of Versailles after WWI ended, apparently China lost territory and Japan was granted some land in Shandong Province.  The red structure memorializes when a large number of students protested the treatment of the Chinese.  This all happened in 1919. 

 We took a walk on a pier out to a pagoda .  You can see that the rain just did not let up.
 

 Pagoda on the pier

 

 After looking around on the beach, we went looking for German architecture in the old town.  We found some, including this Catholic Church.  The Germans occupied this area from 1897 -1914. 

 

One of the BYU teachers in Qingdao arranged for us to have dinner at a German Restaurant called the Rats Keller.  Rat Keller means the basement of the City Hall.  The restaurant was actually housed in the old German Mayor's residence which is partially under renovation. 

 

 Wayne and Libby Clarke at the Ratskeller.  Most of us had Schnitzel.  Stan thought it was GREAT!

Sunday, we attended church with the other BYU teachers at the Qingdao LDS Branch.  There were 38 in attendance including President Weaver, our District President, who was visiting that day.  His sister is married to our nephew!!  It was another international gathering of foreign passport holders.  We had Koreans, a Japanese couple, our Chinese Canadian and all of us from the US.  (The gal in the green is from West Linn, Oregon and we knew her on our Portland LDS Temple shift prior to coming to China.)  We thought it was unusual that one of the Korean young adults, who will be leaving soon on an LDS mission to Boston, was interpreting for the Japanese couple as we held church in China!!

 Jim and Wendy Purnell, BYU teachers in Jinan from Canada, are seated in the forefront of the picture.

The apartment rented by the church for services is near the beach in a very nice condo neighborhood with beautiful landscaping and flowers.  You can almost see a portion of the golf course to the left beyond the tall tree. 

Nancy is finishing her dinner on the high speed train from Qingdao to Jinan. You are right, that is a McDonalds chicken burger.  When you travel, you sometimes grab what you can!  We thought we had plenty of time to go to the train station from the church location.   The Qingdao BYU teachers said it should take about 50 minutes on the bus.  Due to slow traffic, it took us 1 hour and 25 minutes.  Once we did arrive, we had only about 10 minutes before they had us start boarding the train.  We were in first class and the very first car.  We walked about 1/4 mile just on the train platform to reach our seats!  However, the accommodations are quite comfortable and the seats have plenty of leg room.  Plus we received complimentary snacks and drinks!  Life in China is tough!