Qingdao, PRC - Oct 16, 2014

Qingdao is a beautiful coastal city with a colourful history. This was once a small fishing village but was conceded to the Germans from the Chinese in 1898 as compensation for killing two German missionaries. The Germans built a number of European style buildings many of which are still standing today, in fact they still have a major street area named German Street. It was during this early occupation that the Germans discovered the mountain fresh spring-water from nearby Mt. Laoshan was of a quality suited for, you will never guess, yes, beer. Here is a tidbit of information that I did not know about but at this time the Germans brought in the brewmasters from Germany and created, in 1903, the most popular beer in China as well as the best selling beer in the US, Tsingtao Beer has its home here in Qingdao (the actual former name of Qingdao is Tsingtao). Yes we sampled some during our lunch, very nice. Qingdao today has a resort feel even though it is home to almost 8 million inhabitants. There are wonderful beaches where mostly tourists from all over China come here to enjoy along with the mild climate. Its proximity to Korea means there is also a large Korean population here, too, adding to its cosmopolitan flavour. The sailing portion of the 2008 Olympics were held here and the sailing centre remains here today.

Ready to go at 8:00 this morning, Jeff, Ellie, Brad, Gloria, Harry, Margo, Jan and myself waited a good 45 minutes at the gangway until the ship was cleared, fun as you never know how quick (or in this case slow) this process is in some ports. Having said that the MS Amsterdam as well as Holland America have never been here before so there may have been some additional paperwork requirements we just don't know about. No matter, we have learned over our travels to just roll with it.

Ellie and Jeff had again done the research and the eight of us were off and very delighted to jump into our 24 person van with guide, Mitchell and Driver - again lots of room. I think we are starting to get spoiled here. About an hours drive and we were at the Taoist Taiqing Palace, a sacred Taoism temple in China. This palace has a history of over 2,000 years and is considered the origin of Taoism. The Taiqing Palace was built in 140 BC by a Han Dynasty official who devoted himself to Taoist development. A legendary tai-chi master in ancient China lived at the palace which is comprised of three courts, Sanguan Hall, Sanging Hall and Sanhuang Hall. With 155 rooms, Taiqing Palace ranks as China's second second most important Taoist temple. We had a great couple hour visit here fortunately just beating out two buses from the ship. Back into town we stopped for a great included lunch at a local family run restaurant, great food (and great beer), Qingdao is known for a special kind of dumpling that I could not get enough of - delicious. A short drive later and we stopped at a park that gave us a bird's eye view of the city, it had a great pagoda that we were able to get to the top of. We than stopped at the main administration office built by the Germans in 1903 for a photo op before heading down to the water front for some drive by pictures on the way back to the ship. Safely on board by about 4:00. Great day with thanks to our two organizers and their contacts at China Connection Tours.

Hope you enjoy our day in pictures .... Three parts today.