Qingdao, China

            On 5 Oct 2013, after setting our clocks back one hour the previous night, we awoke to our alarm about 6:00 AM.  Actually, we both woke up a couple of minutes before the alarm went off and wondered if there was a problem with our clock.  We had a quick breakfast with couples from Phoenix, AZ, and Queensland, Australia, not bothering to get their names because the names of all of the people we have met so far seem to be merging together.  Neither of us is very good with names, and we don’t see the same people very often except other dancers.

As our ship slowly came into the dock, we seemed almost surrounded by high-rise buildings, mostly apartments.  Close to the dock were stacks of material to be loaded on freighters.  Elsewhere in the world, these stacks consist of very large crates, which eventually loaded directly onto trains or trucks; in Qingdao, the stacks are all tightly covered with green cloth or plastic.  There’s no way of telling what is in the individual stacks.

Tsingtao Brewery

Free Beer!

“Qing” means “lush” in Chinese and “dao” means “island.”  Our tour guide, Kim, is a university student majoring in hotel management, and this was her first time as a tour guide.  Our tour started with a trip to Tsingtao Brewery and Museum.  While the city was serving as a German enclave and treaty port, the Germans founded this brewery.  Twice during the tour, we were served complimentary beer.  As we were leaving the brewery, Jesse remarked to the tour guide that, so far, this had been the best tour of the cruise!  It was very good beer but, after all, it was originally made by Germans – and who knows how to brew beer better!  About 1916 the brewery was taken over by the Japanese; and in 1945 it was “returned to the People of China.”

Our next stop was the German Governor’s Residence Museum.  Built between 1905 and 1908, this Bavarian-style castle is set on a hilltop overlooking the old city.  The inside of the castle is decorated with wood paneling and furnished with authentic “period” furniture.  Sad to say, we were not allowed to take photographs or videos inside the building.

Our tour was scheduled to include the ancient German fortifications built by the German imperial army between 1899 and 1914; however, this part of the tour was cancelled due to renovation and replaced with the tour of the Protestant church, which was originally restricted to European residents of Qingdao.  Its appearance was that of a small Lutheran Church, with little decoration except for one stained glass window; and it appears to still be used for worship.  No photographs or videos were allowed inside this structure either.  Outside the church, there were three different wedding parties being photographed, with the brides all dressed in white.  According to our tour guide, the brides later change into more traditional Chinese wedding garments after the photographs are taken.  (Why would Chinese brides want to be photographed in traditional Western attire?)

However, this church is not beautiful or large or outstanding in any respect.   After our visit there, some of us concluded that the point might have been to show outsiders that China tolerates Christians in their country.

Today, for the first time in the Far East, we encountered restrooms without western toilets, which took some Americans and Australians by surprise.  Not us.  We also saw a few people wearing face masks to protect from smog.  Though we noticed no smog when we were in the city, we could see low-lying smog in the early morning and late afternoon from the ship.  (However, Vladivostok had at least as much smog, and Los Angeles might have more at times.)

One of the passengers asked our tour guide about the Chinese policy on number of children allowed per family.  She replied that city couples are restricted to one child per couple; however, farmers are allowed to have two children per couple if the first child is a female.  But now, a new policy allows city couples to have two children instead of one, if they are both the only children of their parents.  Since both Kim and her fiancé are the only children of their parents, they will be allowed to have two children.  The result is still zero population growth.  At the end of the tour, Kim sang us a Chinese folk song.  Although she seemed to be trying hard to be a good guide, she didn’t tell us about sights we passed or volunteer information.  Jesse wondered afterward if it might have been by design to employ young guides who would know very little.  (Our guide in Japan was obviously trained to be a guide, but our other guides have not been!)

About 12:30 PM we re-boarded the ship, enjoyed a light lunch, and returned to our cabin for our afternoon rest.  Push-off was supposed at 3:30 PM, but “two selfish, thoughtless passengers” (using our Ship Captain’s words) stayed too long ashore, causing a delay.  After they finally boarded, the Captain announced that our delay would be even longer because the pilot (who always steers a ship out of a harbor) had left and now we had to wait 15 minutes longer for the next pilot.  He also said that there would be very little opportunity to make up time before our next port, but that he would do the best that he could.  Chinese officials had been very cooperative in assisting with this problem because we carried ashore only copies of our passports, not our official passports and visas (which were left on the ship).  And they obviously don’t want stray Westerners wandering around in their country!  Our ship was 1 hr. 35 min. late in leaving Quindao.  After dinner, we danced to one song before the band stopped [early]; since no other dancing was available, we returned to our room by 8:00 PM.