Bye Qingdao, hello Beijing, welcome to Datong and Pingyao.

Haha yea I just came back from Qingdao on Sunday, and the last few days went past in a flurry, and then before I knew it, I booked myself, Yin Yin and Yuxuan on a train to Datong, where we will visit UNESCO heritage sites like the Yungang Grottoes and the Wooden Pagoda. I don't know if the Hanging Monastery is part of the list too. And then we will head on to the ancient Pingyao City where we will be transported back to 1000 years ago, staying in a former court (yamen) and visiting places like the "first bank in China". Should be quite cool I guess. hahaha :)

Okay, let me just say something about Qingdao first. I think it was a pretty decent trip, really a rest and relax - I realise I like this kind of trips more and more, just have a rough itinerary, and then take it as it comes. haha :) I didn't the clear blue skies I expected to see, and I didn't get a bird's eye view of the city like I see in the photos, but it was still a nice place to be, especially because it's always breezy - almost cold on some nights - and the pace is even slower than in Beijing I feel. The only thing is, the buses only run till about 10 at night, some even stop operations in the afternoon -_- LOL.

Took the seaside boardwalk, went to the Golden Sand Beach on Huangdao (still belongs to Qingdao), climbed the Jufeng summit route of Mt Laoshan (deviated from original plan to do Beijiushui, but it was worth it) on which I wanted to close my eyes and roll down the steps some times and got terrible muscle aches but felt a great sense of accomplishment to scale yet another mountain in China, visited the Tsingdao beer museum, which was great fun too! :):):)

That basically sums up the trip, and here are some pretty photos! :)
Ya, Tsingdao in Qingdao is drunk from a plastic bag without straw! How cool is that! So cool that I laughed while thinking about it and spouted beer like Merlion. hahaha :P

Second day was spent at the beach, and they built this cute sandcastle! I only made a teeny weeny contribution - they insisted, if not I cannot take photo with them! hahaha :P

And this was the sunset we saw on the way back from Huangdao to Qingdao! VERY PRETTY! I like! :)
And then Howard and I went to climb Mt Laoshan on the third day when the rest went walking around the Badaguan area. It was super duper tiring! :( But it was fun and quite rewarding! :)

And the links to the photos on facebook:
Day 1 - Zhanqiao, seaside boardwalk: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105790&id=506367185&l=1e99b652ea

Day 2 - Golden Sand Beach: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105800&id=506367185&l=e62adec9dd

Day 3 - Jufeng summit route, Mt. Laoshan: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105854&id=506367185&l=e4c73f0459

Day 4 - Tsingdao Beer Museum: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105862&id=506367185&l=6c6ca0c854

Alrighty, time for bed and then wake up tomorrow to help my colleague with something, go on a show at night, and then off to the train station! :)