My penultimate stop in China was Qingdao, a nice and enjoyable seaside city. Major seaport in China, Qingdao hosted the Olympic Sailing competitions in 2008 and was in the hands of Germans for decades, so it still retains many buildings with a German architectural style. I strolled along the new seafront promenade and felt strange to find myself in a “Marktstrasse” with German shops and inscriptions. Qingdao is also the home of China’s second largest Tsingtao-brewery. The Germans did a good job here! As a result, beer is available everywhere and even sold in Qingdao-style: from kegs, in plastic bags, to be drunk through straws! With newly met friends, we jumped on the springy platform of a dance floor and continued our road together to Shanghai.
The largest city by population in China was even more crowded during the Chinese National Holiday. Possibly the biggest crowds we have ever seen couldn’t stop us from taking a walk alongside The Bund, at the banks of the Huangpu River. We fought our way to see the Pudong skyline, Shanghai’s financial and commercial hub. It was even more impressive by night, all lit up. My eyes were quite satisfied having seen the panoramic view from the Oriental Pearl Tower – it makes you feel so tiny and unimportant! – and the beautiful “Above the Earth” photography exhibition. But then it was time to make my stomach happy – with excellent crab-meat-filled juicy dumplings!
