I Only Wear These Shoes for the Laces

This was rather random.

My House: The Tour

Stuck in Qingdao: Not the End of the World

Stuck
The third and final leg of my trip was supposed to take place in Xi'An, but unfortunately the popularity of the beer festival made train tickets either sold out or out of my price range. Furthermore, hostel/hotel prices were getting more expensive by the day as people tried to get into town for the final week of the fest. So I was forced to spend one last day there before returning to Shanghai. There have been worse fates.

Qingdao Day 1.5: Who Needs Old Bay? And Disney for Adults (and Kids too?)

Settling In
After a six hour bus ride from Qufu to Qingdao, I was dropped off next to the highway. I had to walk about half-an-hour to grab a taxi, which took another half-hour. Needless to say, when I finally arrived at the hostel - despite the road sandwich - I was famished. So I was completely blindsided by what awaited me as I stepped through the door:

Kong Zi: Superhero or Kind of a Jerk?

Pre-Blog Heads-Up: For any Chinese readers of the blog out there; while some of what I have to say about Kong Zi may be a bit slanderous, I actually like guy's theories, anecdotes, and such - that was the reason for me coming to Qufu in the first place. There are certainly worse people to base your civilization around, hell even the Founding Fathers owned slaves. But all that being said, I don't think he is the greatest thing since fried rice either; in fact, he may have been kind of a jerk. Let's begin.

Qufu Day 1: Town of Kong Zi

I woke up early this morning to get on the "slow train" out to Qufu by this afternoon. By "slow train" they mean it only goes 250 km/h (155 mph), so we were still flying pretty fast. I got there early this afternoon, where I found that there are no more train tickets to Qingdao, so I will be spending 6 hours on a bus tomorrow instead - a small sacrifice to get to the pinnacle of Asian beer festivals. After finding an honest taximan, I got to my hostel (the charming Qufu International Youth Hostel), dropped off my junk and set out to find food and stuff to do.

A Quick Trip

Hey all,

Tomorrow I will be setting off on a three city tour for somewhere between a week and ten days. I just bought my ticket to the town of Qufu - Confucius' hometown - today. I'll spend 24 hours (possibly 48) there before heading up to Qingdao for their annual International Beer Festival. Depending on whether or not my friends decide to come up to the "Biggest Beer Festival in Asia," I'll stay for either three or four days. Then I'll take an overnight train over to Xi'An to check out the 1000 year old capitol of China and the Terra Cotta Warriors that reside there. This is the stuff I really loved blogging about last year, traveling around and being a real tourist - or trying to live like a resident - in a foreign city. I hope you all follow along, this should be a fun trip. Here's an easier way to read this:

Qufu: 1-2 days
Qingdao: 3-4 days
Xi'An: 3-4 days

Due to the long train rides, I should get in a few good long posts; even if I can't write everyday. When I get internet access, I'll post whatever I can for all of you. And I'll be sure to take a lot of photos too.

Stephen "Scuba" Lauer