Who Says Austin, Texas Does Not Get Snow — Look at the Photos

Well, I was on the flight to China, while in Austin, TX suddenly the winter brought a white surprise — SNOW!!! The tail tail signs of the snow started while I was in the plane on the tarmac at the Austin Airport waiting to take off for Dallas…. We were delayed to take off….because…..of having to have the plane deiced!!! By the time I hit Taipei about 26 hours later, I was emailed photos of our yard in Austin covered in SNOW! And a snow that stayed for more than 24 hours. Take a look at the photos — I think they are pretty neat. Especially the blooming jasmine bush covered in snow flakes :-)

More about Qingdao - A Winter Day in this interesting city…

This is my second posting from Qingdao — I spent three days here and enjoyed a stay at the Grand Regency Hotel on Hong Kong Street (丽晶大酒店), which is a nice hotel for the price. The rooms are large and nicely furnished (although the overall furnishings are a bit tired). Here is a photo of the insides of the room I stayed in

So on Sunday I decided that it is time to explore the city — no matter how cold it was…After a hearty breakfast in a Chinese buffet - yes, this hotel is Chinese owned and run and with a different view of the breakfast buffet vs. the Grand Hyatt Taipei let’s say… No pineapple here :-( but still had my fried eggs and lots of dumplings…and coffee was OK.

Then after doing some work I braved the howling wind and headed out in the town - the objective was TianHou Temple and the downtown pier at the bay.

Today was a sunny day, but the wind made it still freezing… After a cab ride, I reached the temple and was pleasantly surprised - not crowded and relatively colorful. Bought some Year of the Tiger charms from the monks, and came across a small shop of a paper cuts artist - bought a paper cut of the year of the tiger and she gave me a sheet of her biography - very nice lady.

Then I walked for a mile to the bay with a pier that reaches pretty far out in the sea. On the pier there were all sort of people trying to sell stuff - mostly it appeared illegally (as they hurriedly collected their wares a couple of times while I was there on what appeared the approach of police). I saw a guy display on the boardwalk sea stars (I think that is what they were called — I took pictures)
pulled fresh out of the bay. They were beautiful - yellow undersides and blue-purple tops… I heard one of the mulling people asking or concluding “yes, they are good eating…” — oh, well too bad for the creatures…

Given the freezing wind, it was amazing how many people were on the pier -

my guess many of them visitors from the country side - the local Qingdao crowd was probably staying warm at home ;-) as the rest of us visitors were trying to catch a view of the ocean and city…and I don’t blame them - after about 10minutes on the pier I was ready to head to a warmer place…
That turned out to be the local Parkson Dept. Store…after a quick walk through it - I headed out again and continued my walk along Zhongshan Lu and the near by streets. A detour brought me to an imposing church built on a hill of Zhongshan Lu…a remnant of the times the German residents occupied a large chunk of downtown Qingdao…(The story goes as such - Qingdao was surrendered to Germany in the late 18 hundreds after two German monks were killed in the city and German troops marched here)
Took a lot of pictures - the architecture along side Zhongshan Lu is very interesting - you would think you are in a European town…

By 4:30pm I was finally too cold, so I hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel. The cab was a VW Passat - admitedly a bit nicer than the VW Santana cabs which are prolific - but I had an interesting surprise - “luxury” comes at a price - the meter of that cab was quickly running up the tab… When I asked the driver “what gives…?” - his response was “well new model cab - new price…”. He sounded almost apologetic. By the time I got back to the hotel the meter was at RMB26 !!! While at noon the same trip cost me RMB17!!! What is that - over 50% markup…
Another interesting observation - the paper cut of the Chinese Zodiak Year of the Tiger in a frame done by a local artist cost me RMB25 …hm…?!?! Peculiar…!?!?
The difference between the local and global economy…

Taxi Cabs in Beijing, Qingdao (and other cities for that matter)

As you can tell from many of our postings we have lived in China for a number of years, having come and gone a number of times. Many things about life in the country are changing very fast and to the better — the quality of life is definitely going up, many of the cities in China are becoming very cosmopolitan, and so on and so forth. One thing seems to be staying unchanged though is the attitude to taxis in China. Every year I expect a remarkable improvement in their cleanliness, their safety and every year I get unpleasantly surprised at the same thing — the more China is changing the more its taxis are staying the same :-) I put a smiley face here but in reality there are many unpleasant aspects of the taxis in China. In most cases you can not find a safety belt for the passengers. If you look for them you will find that they are hidden / trapped under the seat covers or under the actual seats…. Good luck using them. Over the years the taxi drivers have become more aggressive and speedier — in some cases they drive on the city highways at speeds around 100km/hr. An accident in those conditions and with you wearing no seat belt will not be a minor thing…..

Then there is one other aspect that really baffles me — it is winter, the temperature outside could be in the range of -5 degrees C, and the cab driver cracks the window open and drives that way ???!!! What is that all about….? It is not like they are feeling warm — in all cases they are dressed in heavy winter clothing and constantly rubbing their hands when stopped at traffic lights. But the window on the driver side and in many cases on the front passenger side has to be open half way almost —> with pretty awful results — cold wind hitting you (the passenger in the back seat) in the face and causing your eyes to tear up….

Whenever I have pointed out that anomaly to the drivers they look at me as if I am asking a major / strange question. “Of course we have to keep the window open… How else will we get fresh air…”

Oh, well — cars can become technological marvels and I still will probably see the cabs going by with cracked open windows in the cold winter days of Beijing (or any other city for that matter)….

One advice. Of course dress warmly and if you feel uncomfortable — just try to ask the cab driver (or gesture to the driver) that you want that window closed…. And of course try to find a cab with safety belts that are NOT hidden — yes, they do exist! Happy travels.

Qingdao - first review since 2006 - JiMo Shopping Area

Earlier today I landed in Qingdao following a brief flight from Beijing. I was greeted by the a very cold winter Qingdao day — temperature of 1C. Of course I flew in from Beijing, which is not exactly a balmy place either, so I should not be complaining too much…but I just don’t like the cold wind and freezing temperatures….

The last time I was in Qingdao was in the Summer of 2006. At the time, the beaches were full of tourists and the ocean was nice and warm. Now, as I was driving in a cab to the hotel I saw just a few people on the ocean side streets and all of them were bundled up and looking very, very cold.

Once I made it to the hotel I decided to head out and check out some of the neighbourhoods. What a better way to experience a city — just jump into the local scene — check out the local shopping areas. So I headed to JiMo Market area. Well, that was a major let down :-(
I made it there by 5pm and most of the shops were closing (on a Saturday at 5pm ??!!!) - go figure. But then the shops looked pretty run down — even if they were open, they were not exactly exciting looking. I took a bunch of photos (will publish them later on once I get to a speedier VPN connection) and briskly headed back to the main street. Needless to say — I DO NOT recommend the JiMo Market.

View of the JiMo Shopping area in Qingdao

Another view of JiMo shopping area