Are We There Yet?

I was not familiar with the coastal city of Quindao. After all, with only ten million residents, it’s a mere village compared to Shanghai. I’m being silly, of course. It’s a major port and our first stop in what is considered northern China. It’s famous, at least in Asia, as the home of Tsingtao beer, the second most consumed beer in the world. The brewery was started in 1903 under the guidance of German brewmasters, which is a lead in to the history of the city of Qingdao.

Not unexpectedly, Qingdao was long ago established as a coastal community oriented to fishing. Its most famous native is Confucius, who was born here. But it was during its short period as a German colony, 1898 to 1914, that the city developed its modern identity as a major port and with a distinct German-influenced architecture. That influence did not end in 1914, when the Japanese, allied with the UK and France against Germany in WW I, occupied Qingdao. The Japanese were forced to give Qingdao back to China in 1922 as a result of the Washington Naval Conference agreements. The Germans eventually returned to China and Qingdao as advisors to help modernize China (under Chiang Kai-shek) and its military. That all got reversed again when Qingdao fell to the Japanese in 1937. (The Germans remained as advisors to China while the latter fought against the Japanese invasion during early WW2 until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. History can be complicated.) The Japanese did not leave Qingdao until 1945. For a while, Quindao was the headquarters of the  U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet. In 1949, the Red Army marched in and the city’s modern history began. Well, that’s not really accurate. The city, as with all of China, began in its modern age when it abandoned a purely socialist economy (which managed to starve tens of millions Chinese to death during the Great Leap Forward) to a “socialist market economy”, which is one of the greatest oxymorons ever coined. Nevertheless, one can’t argue with China’s economic success thus far.

OK, John. End the lesson and get on with the visit. 😁 

The evening of our arrival we were entertained by a Chinese Kung Fu show. The bottom two pictures below I borrowed from a fellow passenger who sat closer to the stage than did I.

It was early to bed after this first day, with the expected result is that I woke very early. I decided to download the most recent Slow Horses book and got well into it before the sun rose. I should have picked a more boring book and perhaps I would have gotten sleepy enough to return to bed.

Qingdao must have the world’s longest cruise port wharf and we were docked at the end of it, despite being the only cruise ship in port. It’s a half mile to the shoreline, a good twenty-plus minutes of walking to get to our tour buses.

Once again we had signed up for and participated in the “included” excursion which, again, was a bus ride to a site (two in this case) then back to the ship. This time, however, the commentary during the ride was better than most. Still, this makes me reflect as to why we no longer do what we once did on such ocean voyages. Instead of signing up for a cruise line-sponsored tour, arrange for a private tour discovered via TripAdvisor or the equivalent. We had been pleased with the Viking excursions on the river cruises but less so, as a rule, on this ocean cruise. We’re far from unhappy, mind you, but we could have done better.

Qingdao is considered as divided into three parts. The first is what was the German and, generally, European influenced section of the city. It’s here we are touring. Much of this architectural style continues to be reflected in many of its newer buildings. A second section is the “new city”, which has most of the more recent skyscrapers. Unlike as in Shanghai and many other of the more southern cities, tall buildings have a solid granite base upon which to sit. (In Shanghai and elsewhere south, the skyscrapers sit on muddy ground that has been frozen to give a solid base—and kept frozen! May they avoid a long loss of energy for refrigeration.) The third, and not unlarge, section of the town is military, including a naval headquarters and base. Obviously we did not visit this area, although we did glimpse some of the housing for the families of senior naval personnel, the buildings being former German ones converted to housing.

Back to our tour. After a drive through several interesting parts of the city we stopped at St. Michael’s Catholic Cathedral, built by German in 1934. It was to be a quick photo stop, outside view only, but when Frances and I approached the ticket office to, perhaps, go inside, we were waved through by the attendant. Works for us.

When the communists took over the city, the crosses at the top of the steeples were buried to keep them from being destroyed by the new regime. They have now resurrected to adorn the steeple.