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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 prison!!
Part of the building has been turned into a museum and I paid to have a look around.I learnt that the prison had been built by Germany to hold German prisoners during the war.But later it had been used by the Japanese to hold Chinese prisoners.The top floors were empty cells, but the basement contained the Japanese torture chambers, including some of the old implements.It was quite disturbing, especially as it would have been in use less than 100 years ago. I went into another room, and before I realised what I was looking at, I had seen several horrific photos of people who had just been decapitated (the bodies were still sat upright and the head on the floor) and also of some dead children.It was too early in the day to be looking at this kind of real-horror so I went back out into the sunshine and breathed in several gulps of fresh air before walking onwards.
I found the part of town called 'Little Qingdao' where there is a lighthouse (I had seen the lighthouse from a distance last night in the dark) and on the rocks nearby there was a Chinese couple who had just got married and a photographer was trying to get photographs of the bride with her dress flowing out in the breeze.I walked a bit more and found a park right next to the sea.I walked through it and then came out on Beach Number 1.I took off my flip flops, rolled up my skirt, and went for a paddle!It was warm and felt wonderful.A lot of the Chinese people on the beach were staring at me but I didn't care, I was in the sea!I found a restaurant on the beach itself, and sat in the sunshine eating noodles while my feet dried off.What could be better?
After lunch I took a taxi to Beer Street.This is where Tsingtao Beer is made.It is a German built factory, brewing beer which is distributed all over China and the world.The museum itself was not particularly interesting, especially for anyone who has been to a museum like this before as I have (Guinness factory in Dublin is much the same) however, there were some free samples of beer and they even sold beer flavour peanuts which I must say was a first for me!When I got to the main bar at the end of the tour, I picked up my free beer and went to sit down but I was summoned by a Chinese family "Hello! Hello! Sit! Sit!"I wasn't really sure what to do, I would look a bit stupid if I turned them down, just to go and sit by myself.What to do?They carried on waving so I walked over to them and said Hello.They all shuffled up to make space for me so I decided I should probably just sit down.What's the worst that could happen?
The family was a group of three men, two women and a girl.The girl could speak the best English out of all of them.Her English name was Cherry and she was fifteen years old.One of the women in the group was trying to do most of the talking but she was quite drunk and kept spilling her beer on me.They were from a place called Dalian.They asked for my mobile number and email address and invited me to go and stay with them in Dalian.I thanked them for their offer and told them I have very little time to travel as I am a teacher.I forget that in China, a lot of people don't just sit around idly sipping their beer.So every time I went to pick up my glass, the adults in the group would all clink glasses with me, say cheers, and down their drinks.Then they would top up my glass from the pitchers they had bought.I thought I would try to make my excuses and leave, so the next time we did 'cheers' I also downed my drink in one, but before I could utter my goodbyes they had topped it back up!This went on for a while and they even sent Cherry to buy some more pitchers of beer.Without realising I had started to get quite drunk, so I stopped protesting and just started downing the beers along with the rest of them.(I should add the glass they use for beer here is a very small whisky tumbler sized glass, I was NOT downing pints!) Then the questioning started from the very drunk lady… "Do you like Chinese men?"I sort of smiled and politely laughed a little.Then she pointed at one of Cherry's Uncles "Would you like husband?".Everyone in China seems obsessed with getting married!Well, I was too drunk to be able to maintain politeness any further and just burst out laughing.They looked shocked for a moment and then the woman who had asked me grinned and shook my hand and started laughing at him too!Then he even shook my hand!Totally bizarre.
I carried on talking to Cherry about her hometown and her school.She was really nice to talk to, and I was really hoping she couldn't tell how drunk I was.I needn't have worried. I heard a strange noise and turned around to discover two of the men in the group were drunkenly passed out on the table snoring!!!!Concerned they might wake up and vomit, or try to set me up with another relative, I said goodbye to Cherry and walked back out into the daylight. It was a bit of a struggle to walk in a straight line and it was only about 3:30pm.I was so amused at how I'd gotten this drunk by accident I couldn't help grinning.I went to a food store and bought a gigantic bag of crisps called 'cheese sticks'.I can't remember how they tasted but I do know I had neon orange fingers for several hours afterwards.I found a park and walked around for a bit.Apparently I photographed some inflatable pandas, I hardly remember.
Somehow I had memorised the taxi route and walked all the way back to the beach where I'd had my lunch.From here I was able to find my way back to the hostel.I walked for hours!It is lucky I was drunk as time seemed to pass very quickly and I didn't mind just walking and walking.The sun was starting to set and I bought an ice cream and ate it as the sun went down.The bay turned a lovely purple colour before everything lit up for the night.I didn't think I was feeling as drunk anymore, so I decided to go back to the hostel, have a shower and then go for dinner.Several hours later I woke up fully clothed.I had gone back to the hostel and passed out!
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