Quirky Qingdao

I recently made a weekend trip to Jinan 济南 for a friend's wedding and decided to visit the famous Chinese city by the sea -- Qingdao 青岛, since it is situated in the same province as Jinan, in Shandong 山东 province, and it's only about 4 hours speed-train ride away, South-east of Beijing. 

Read on about the interesting ways of Shandong-ites (what I'd like to call them), and some appetising (or revolting) pictures -- depending on the strength of your gut ;)

Jinan 济南

Allow me to first start with Jinan, the Capital of Shandong Province. 
Prior to my trip, I asked a local friend of mine from Shandong province about her hometown. She introduced Jinan as one of the four 'furnaces' 四大火炉 in China - the first three being Chongqing 重庆, Nanjing 南京 and Wuhan 武汉 situated at the basin of the longest river in Asia - Yangtze River 长江.

Jinan has a relatively high precipitation for northern Chinese standards. as the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides and one side facing the Yangtze River ('三面环山，一面对河‘), hence summer can be rather oppressive. 

I did a further Google search and found that Jinan was named as a candidate for the Fourth 'Furnace' in China, and that it is interchangeable with two other Chinese cities - Changsha 长沙 and NanChang 南昌.  In 2010, there was an emergence of a few more hot summer cities which were competing to take over the positions of the four 'furnaces', that the number of 'furnaces' was increased to 7 (and more, fighting to be on the waiting list)! To be honest, I'm not going to bother keeping up. Looking at the increasing number of cars on the road, and the rate of industrialisation, deforestation etc, I believe most cities will be on the list in no time.

Oh well... Who doesn't like to be attached to a superlative eh? I too, would like to strive to be the 'Hottest', hah.. *wink* 

Qingdao 青岛

Approximately 2 hours speed-train ride east of Jinan, 'Qing' 青 in Chinese means 'Green' or 'Lush' and 'dao' 岛 means 'Island'. True enough, I found Qingdao to be a very green city with many tree-lined streets which makes it very comfortable for walking around the city. It was also surprisingly foggy and cool in the night around July when we visited. Definitely refreshing to get away from the pollution in Beijing to some fresh, cool air!

I wouldn't say the beach is fantastic especially if you compare it with the beaches in South East Asia, the Caribbean, or the Mediterranean region, but I think it's probably a good option for if you don't want to travel too far from the 'Jing for the seaside feel.

We really enjoyed our walk by the sea, the seafood, the Chinese/European architecture,  the beer (Qingdao was once colonised by the Germans, hence the beer and German architecture). We also stumbled upon some really interesting sights in our one day in Qingdao. How I wish we had at least one more day to explore and discover other interesting/funny things, such as these...

Biking in the sea... So unique we had to try it.
I must say, it is very innovative and it was actually nice to get out to the sea, away from the hordes of people at the beach. 

The temperature of the seawater was pretty cool, which kind of shocked my toes for awhile, as I have naturally associated sea water to be warm like what I'm used to in South East Asia.

Tsingtao Beer Museum - one of the more famous attractions in Qingdao. If you've been in China long enough, you definitely would have heard of Tsingtao beer - sold at every corner of China. For RMB60 (approx. USD10), you gain entry to the brewery, the museum, on top of getting a glass of raw beer, a glass of draft beer, and a chance to enter a room that simulates being drunk - perfect for teetotalers... and drinkers alike! ;)

Apologies, for my friends and I were so excited about the free beer (besides, it's really hot out there too ya know..) that we just gulped half the glass down before I remembered to snap a photo of it. The picture above, is a picture of RAW BEER. 

What is raw beer? Raw beer is unfiltered. Beer that still has yeast in it. I felt it to be heavier on the palette and much richer. If you notice, it also has less clarity compared to its filtered sibling - draft beer.

This is a video we took at the room in the beer museum that simulates being drunk! It was quite fun. I wish the length of the room was longer.

The next photo is something you can find ONLY in Qingdao...

Fresh takeaway beer in a plastic bag... Straight from a keg from a street vendor!

I had a chat with a middle-aged taxi driver and he told me that back in his days, people would hang these plastic bags containing fresh beer at the rear-view mirror of their car, insert a straw and sip their beer while driving! Heh... Just picture that. Drink-driving at its BEST!!

And since we were in a city by the sea, we couldn't miss out on seafood.

Being a city girl, I was fascinated by these live octopus, hence I suggested that we got a table right by the aquarium so I could admire these graceful creatures floating gracefully in the aquarium.. One of which would end up in our tummies... yikes....

I took the video below when the shop owner picked up 'the unlucky one'... I suppose this octopus knew its fate... I'd like to apologise in advance for my squeals, but I was rather afraid that one of its arms would lash out at me, or worse, have its suction cups clinging on to my face..!!

Right after I clicked on the 'Stop' button to end the video recording, I glanced past the shoulder of my friend seated opposite me.... and I saw something... something with tentacles slowly creeping up her shoulder!.....Aaaaahh.... Nah, I kid, hehe... I saw the shop owner tearing apart the head of our unlucky octopus and muck flowing out of its decapitated head... Ugh.. God.... It's got to be its brains and blue blood... I almost lost my appetite. Thankfully I didn't get my friends to look over, or the poor octopus would've died for no reason...

A few days after I'd returned from Qingdao, my mum sent me an email with this super interesting image:

That is actually a 'fresh' dead squid (as you can see half its head is already gone). It 'dances' when soy sauce is poured on it. Apparently, the high salt content in the soy sauce reacts with ions in the cells of the octopus' arms (not tentacles), activating its neurons, creating voltage differences, making it 'come back to life'!!! 

This dish is called 'Odori don' (Dancing rice bowl) in Japan. The dish is such a success that the chef/founder at the restaurant Ikkatei Tabiji, in Hakodate, Japan, patented the name of the creation. Now other restaurants in that area have come up with their own versions of the 'Hakodate dish' under different names.

I wish so bad that my mum had sent this to me before my trip, as I had the perfect opportunity while I was in Qingdao to try this out!! 
Oh well, next time.


Next, is a picture my friend sent to me. He told me to have a taste of this Qingdao delicacy. Would you like to guess what these are?

At one glance, I thought they were baby rats. At closer inspection, I realised they didn't have eyes or tails, so baby rats were out of the question.

These are actually 'Sea intestines' 海肠, or as my friend would rather call them - 'Sea dicks'... Since they're rather... Phallic looking. The 'Sea Intestines' are a kind of sea worm that grow in the cold waters of the Yellow sea region. I went around showing vendors this picture, in hopes I'd find it. I wanted to see them alive and wiggling, and check with myself if I'd dare eat them. Locals say they're meant to be eaten raw. Not sure if I can stomach that, but I may just try a bite of a cooked 'Sea intestine'. Just like how I tried Sandworm in Hainan :)

I'm sure there are many other interesting things in Qingdao which I missed by being there for just a day. If you see anything else interesting in Qingdao, do share them with me.

Happy (yummy) travels!

First Stop: Hainan Island!

What an adventure it was when I first arrived Beijing, April 2012 to join CCTV News' feature programme 'Travelogue' -- I quickly settled in, researched and came up with a proposal based on the director's brief on my first project: Central Hainan, and off we went filming for 2 weeks!

My first filming experience with Travelogue went by pretty smoothly I must say. My team and I arrived Haikou 海口 in Hainan at the beginning of the rainy season, and I remember clearly, how fortunate we were on a couple of occasions where the sky decided to open up its flood gates, as soon as we entered our van after getting all the shots we wanted. It made us think that ‘Someone’ was probably watching over us, ensuring we had an uninterrupted shoot.

Of course we still did encounter rain, but that only complemented our situation – such as the time it drizzled while we hiked up 五指山 Mount WuZhi (where British adventurer Bear Grylls filmed Discovery Channel's 'Man vs Wild' in 2009), and the time it rained cats and dogs while I was dipping in the Hotsprings in 七仙岭 Seven Fairies Ridge. The latter experience, was Priceless! These moments were, I would say, like adding a slice of lemon to your water – Refreshing and with a twist. An added excitement to the most ordinary of events. As the saying goes, “If you think sunshine brings you happiness, you haven’t danced in the rain”. TRUE DAT!

Anyway, here are some pictures of our trip to the Central Part of Hainan. Enjoy!

火山岩古村落 Ancient Volcanic Village - This 900 year old village is built entirely with igneous rocks, or volcanic rocks. These igneous rocks are grey and fairly light in weight as its surface is porous. I brought one igneous rock home and it now acts as a paper-weight on my study table. 

I was just studying the rock on my table, wondering why it’s so porous... My guess is that once a volcano erupts, bubbling lava flows (like what we see in documentaries), and the lava cools off fairly quickly as the temperature on earth is way cooler than the core of the earth, hence the lava solidifies while it’s still fresh and bubbling...And that’s just how the holes are formed -- these holes were previously occupied by bubbles, air pockets... Likely? Possibly.

As you can see, the walls of these little houses are built by stacking up igneous rocks of different shapes and sizes, without using cement or any adhesive material!

I love the feel of this place although it is dilapidated and currently only occupied by a few elderly people. It has this undeveloped natural beauty that I find rather attractive and mesmerising!

Two of the few elderly people who still live in the volcanic village, took us around for 2 yuan each.

I like this photo, as it seems to bring out the flavour of the village whilst accurately representing the current situation at the volcanic village... And don’t you think that the lady is such a beauty? :)

Some ladies spending their Sunday in the People’s Park in Haikou, line-dancing and teaching each other dance steps.

Break time! The coconut is Bigger than our cameraman’s head!!

This is one dessert that’s ubiquitous in the Southern parts of China where temperatures are at a high most part of the year – This dessert is called 清补凉 Qing1 bu3 liang2. It has almost every ingredients of 'cooling' properties you can think of, in a bowl -- 椰肉 Coconut flesh, 西瓜 Watermelon, 绿豆 Green beans, 黑凉粉 Grass jelly, 云豆 Kidney beans,珍珠圆子 Chewy Yam balls, 鹌鹑蛋 Quail’s egg... Served in Coconut juice mixed with Coconut water. There is no ONE recipe for this, but this is 清补凉 Hainan-style ;) Perfect on a hot day!

Would you like to guess what this is? Perhaps it’s a common sight in China, but this was definitely quite a new thing for the Malaysian! It’s from the sea... It’s a type of worm... It is 沙虫 Sandworm... Mmmmmm... =) 

The camera was so close I could easily fog up the lens! 

Adorable village dog (that looks a bit like a wolf) in 初保村黎寨 ChuBao Li Minority Village, south of 五指山 Mount WuZhi/Five Finger Mountain. 

This is a dried Areca nut 槟榔 that’s commercially available. It was really tough to chew, as it was fibrous and had the consistency of wood! Surprisingly, it tasted like mint to me.

Chewing it definitely did create a hot sensation in my body and numbed my mouth and throat. In addition to that, it gave me 3 ulcers 溃疡 in my mouth as the skin of this dried Areca nut was very fibrous (ie. Rough). Needless to say, I had to take a break from this nasty little thing since it shocked my mouth and digestive tract. But curiosity crept up after a couple of days and I had to try the real deal -- The fresh, green Areca nut with Betel leaf... And that was much better than chewing the dried toughie that made me feel as though I was chewing on a tree-bark.

This is a bunch of ripe old Areca Nuts 槟榔.

定安久温塘冷泉 Ding An County’s JiuWenTang Coldsprings – Truly scenic, and I’d say, a great place for wedding photography, and fish spa ;)

This is me trying hard to suppress my strong emotions of wanting to let out a yelp and giggle while presenting, for every time a little fish charged at my feet with force to grab a piece of my dead skin, it tickled me to the bone!

One thing about being a Travelogue host is that you’re sometimes forced to do things you normally wouldn’t do. It forces you to face your fears since ‘No’ is never part of the game, hah.. Certainly good training for me!

My favourite drink in Hainan (apart from Coconut water and juice) is 山兰酒 / ShanLan Rice Wine, or the locals call it 酉并酒, pronounced as ‘Biang4 Jiu3’. The word ‘酉并, biang4’ cannot be found in Chinese dictionaries as it is a word used only by the Li Minority. It is a kind of sweet rice wine made by fermenting ShanLan Rice 山兰稻, and it is really addictive! For those of you who have a sweet-tooth like me, you are going to love this rice wine! And it contains just 15% of alcohol. Yes, ‘just’...=)

There is a saying by the Li people about their ShanLan Rice Wine that goes: 喝了不容易醉,醉了不容易醒. It means that you can keep drinking and you won’t get drunk, but once you get drunk, you’re going to have a TOUGH time getting up from your log-like state! So, enjoy your ShanLan Rice Wine, in moderation ;)

This little piglet reminded me of my dogs at home as it behaved just like them... The way it trotted about happily, the way it rested its head on its trotters... The sight of it could turn me into a vegetarian. 

“Look, this city chick has never seen paddy in her life! Look how excited she is holding the paddy plants,” say the two standing behind me, shaking their heads while rolling their eyes... =p

On a more serious note, coming from Malaysia where paddy fields are a mere 40-minute drive away from Kuala Lumpur where I’m from, I’ve never actually had the opportunity to get into the muddy fields, so this really was quite a fun experience. Despite it being scorching hot that afternoon, coolness came from having both my feet submerged in mushy cold mud, occasionally having a tadpole tickling my toe, and dragonflies darting across once in a while. It was quite an experience. It is also in times like this, that I understand what my family has been telling me oh-so-frequently, to finish up the rice in my bowl. It is tough work - bending at the waist for hours on end, under the hot sun! 

Thumbs-up whilst saying 'Bo long' -- That's the way to greet people of the Li Minority.

Now this was quite a challenge! Not only did I have to learn my steps according to the rhythm of the music so that my feet won’t be clamped by the threatening bamboos beating against each other, I also had to deliver my closing sequence for the episode! It resulted in an embarrassing slide and fall which our 2 cameramen were ever so delighted to film that Golden moment! 

Instead of running over to my rescue, they laughed, placed the camera right at my face and filmed everything. What enthusiastically wonderful people I work with eh? =p And despite my pitiful plea, my director insisted on finding a way of inserting my graceful fall in the programme. 

Thankfully, due to time-constraints of the episode, that scene can't be inserted. *Phew*... :)

You can view my two episodes on Central Hainan here:

海南 Hainan: South of the Sea #1

In the first episode on Hainan island, we start our journey in the north, at Haikou 海口, where we will:
- Get up-close with one of the world's most precious woods
- Visit the world's largest public Golf Resort
- Have a glimpse of Hainan as it was 800 years ago
- Witness Hainan's undeveloped natural beauty
- Find out what makes Hainan such a Bountiful place!

(You can view the episode here, in case it doesn't appear.)

AND

海南 Hainan: South of the Sea #4

In this episode of our Hainan series, we will:
- Experience the mountainous central part of Hainan where British adventurer Bear Grylls once 'hung out' to film Discovery Channel's 'Man vs Wild'
- Conquer some deceptive rapids
- Get down and dirty in the fields
- Observe the authentic lifestyle of the Li Minorities, in the best preserved ethnic minority village in Hainan
- Celebrate the vibrant ethnic Li heritage, with some music and dance!

(And you can view this episode here, in case the video doesn't appear above.)

 Enjoy! =)


* Note: Part of the Chinese Government's efforts in boosting Hainan Island's status as an International Tourism Destination, is introducing duty-free shopping in Hainan, and implementing a visa-free entry policy for tourist groups from 26 countries, enabling them to enjoy visa-free access to Hainan with a maximum stay of 15 days.

These 26 countries include the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. 

There's even a better deal for tourists from Russia, South Korea and Germany whereby the minimum requirement of a tour group is reduced from five to two people, and the maximum stay for visitors from these three countries is extended to 21 days!

*Just a little disclaimer: This information is as of April 2012