Qingdao, Day 1

It felt rather Twilight Zone.

The plane landed at the Qingdao Airport at 7:20. Qingdao hardly compares to Beijing's largest terminal in the world, but can hold a sizable number of airplanes. As we pulled up to the gate, I looked out the window. No other planes in site. Each gate sat empty, in both directions. It felt eery.

We exited into the airport, and walked through empty halls. The only people in the building seemed to be those on our flight, and those people wearing pretty uniforms who stood at strategic intersections pointing their arms in the direction we ought to walk. Apparently, they worried about us getting lost in this otherwise empty building.

We gathered our checked luggage within minutes and were out the door almost immediately.

We are in Qingdao on a company field trip - a bit of a junket, in my opinion. This is the third company field trip Dave has participated in. In the name of team building, the office gathers everyone available for a weekend and transports them to a lovely city. We all went to Xiamen last October. Dave and L-- went to Hangzhou with the team in the spring. This time the entire office has been flown to Qingdao and housed and fed in the Shangri-La, all so they can sit in meetings all day. We have not seen Dave since breakfast this morning. I suppose a junket by definition does NOT include sitting in meetings all day, but we're a bit surprised at the expense these two days of meetings but be running.

Our bus full of Dave's team members pulled out onto an empty highway. We drove passed signs, statues and specially mown grasses, all in the shape of the sailing emblem from the Olympics. But we rarely drove past another person or vehicle. We pulled into the hotel drive around 8:30 in the evening but it could have been midnight for how few people were around.

And that's where it occured to me. Many seaside cities would feel rather empty in October. In most countries, this would not feel strange. But Qingdao is a city in China. I have not been anywhere not crowded full of people since we arrived in this foreign land last year.

Qingdao has been a refreshing change of pace. The streets are wide, and not full of cars. The people are friendly and not at all pushy - although our children have regained their celebrity status, which they are bristling from.

The hotel is comfortable, with a large and largely Chinese breakfast spread and a lovely pool with a children's paddling pool. The girls and I walked to the seaside after breakfast, heading first to May 4th square. The square itself was rather unscenic, but the view of the Olympic sailing site kept us interested and we enjoyed walking along this promenade for quite some time. After a bit of walking did not turn up a beach, we jumped in a taxi and headed toward what I thought was a site lalong the beach.

Wo yao qu ba da guan, I told the taxi driver. I want to go to ba da guan.

My handy little Shangri-La map made it look like ba da guan is a lovely old stone building sitting on a hill above a beautiful, sandy beach. Apparently this quaint little map was misleading. Ba da guan is apparently a neighborhood of old German mansions situated on a hill above the seashore. The streets and bouleavards were lined with tall trees, and each corner sported a grassy little park. People were few and we enjoyed a pleasant walk through this hilly neighborhood. Were the homes in better condition, and the addresses in another language, I could have imagined we were in the hills of Bavaria for the beauty of these old homes.

Over the crest of a hill and we could see that sandy beach we had been promised. Down the hill, over a surprisingly long boardwallk, and onto the beach where we were stopped by S--'s newly formed fan club. L-- and I traipsed right past the crowds and sat on the beach with our sand toys. S-- sat in the midst of her fan club, 100 meters away from L-- and I, and enjoyed new toys, new treats, and plenty of photographs.

After an hour of playing separately, L-- and I gathered S-- to join us wandering down to the water's edge. After dipping our toes in the water, I loaded both girls into our umbrella stroller and used every ounce of my strength to pull this weighted stroller along a sandy beach to a taxi stand. We zoomed back to the hotel and all 3 of us fell right to sleep.

A quick visit to Pizza Hut after naps left us fully nourished, and a Toblerone from the mini-bar has me feeling full of energy and all ready to face bedtime on my own, as Dave has only just sat down to dinner. Another day on our own tomorrow, and we don't mind at all. Qingdao is truly a lovely city and the weather has been perfect. My girls are good sports and simply being out of Shanghai has been refreshing for all four of us.