Qingdao has been occupied by Germany and by Japan during its history, but has been referred to as "Bavaria-on-the-East-China-Sea" or "China's Switzerland" which should give you some idea of how different it is to Liaocheng!The hostel was called Beach Castle and looks like an old German castle, but on walking around the grounds, I discovered it was actually an old prison.So I suppose technically I can now say I have spent the night in a priso...

My bus was due to leave at 8:30 in the morning.I made myself a bus-picnic and went to the station.I was a bit nervous about getting on the wrong bus, but I showed the ticket collector my ticket, and I also showed the driver once I got on the bus.There was already at least one person in each pair of seats so I had to sit next to a Chinese girl but she didn't smile or anything so I just put in my iPod, put on my eye mask, and relaxed.The journey was going to be a...