Weekend in Qindao

I've just had an excursion to Qindao (pronounced tChindao), the coastal city for the Olympic Games yachting in August, and ate too much food and drank too much beer.

A slide show can be seen by clicking here. (No titles yet, sorry!)

And here is a lovely video - first of school children at recess, then a bird man I found in the park, teaching his birds how to sing.

And another video of a the train ride from Jinan to Qindao.

Xi'an

I flew to Xi'an this weekend (and survived an earthquake!) Xi'an (pronounced "Shjiaan") was great. Here's me with the terracotta warriors. And a special video of the fabulous Muslim Quarter in the old walled city - Beiyanmen Street. Most of my wants from visiting China were fulfilled in this one city! There are no less than 65 photos in a slideshow, if you click here.

Fish tank, LCD TV, Hairdresser

It's midnight in Jinan on a Saturday, and a large LCD TV lights up a fish tank in front of a hairdressing salon.

Ming Music

I tripped over this delightful performance of classical musicians (performing for the tourists) in the ancient pavilions of the Summer Palace, Beijing. At the end, check out the man in the cool garb, walking over to gong the gong. I'd love to do that!

Line Dancing Chinese Style

Seen in a pavilion in the Summer Palace, Beijing, a bunch of good friends strutting their stuff. Chinese style.

The freeways of Jinan

Jinan is renown in China for its extensive freeway system. Here is a short video of the trip from the airport, arriving into the city. When there is a centralised government, any large project is possible.

Tour Guide Chinglish

This tour guide was so confident with his English, but his pronunciation was simply terrible. For example, for "Chinese" he'd say "Chess". Here is a short video:

Sunday afternoon in Quandeng Square

This enormous square, with a big blue two legged sculpture at the centre, and a shopping mall beneath, is in the middle of Jinan.

It was a warm, Spring, Sunday afternoon, with just enough breeze to lift the kites. People are entertained by the amazing fountains, and each other. Kite fliers, roller skaters, lovers, men spinning tops.

I've 25 photos on FlickR, so click here for a slide show!


And below is a short video of some top spinners, entertaining an appreciative crowd. Listen to the weird sound the tops produce.

University - video views

To give you an idea of the size of the university, here is a short video, most of it taken from the shuttle bus window.


The library is an impressive building. It has five floors around a large courtyard. One floor is dedicated to Foreign resources, and one room has stacks of high quality, Chinese published, English books. They hardly seem used. Unfortunately there seems to be no catalogue of them in English.

Construction of four football stadia

Of course, everyone knows that the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing this year (the torch has already arrived!) starting 8 August. But few of you might realise that in 2009 Jinan is hosting the All-China Games, and in 2010 the 16th Asian Games will be also be held in China - Guangzhou, to be precise.

It seems that Jinan decided to have a few more football facilities, and so not one, but four giant stadia are currently being built on one site near the road I travel every day to work. The scale of the construction is really quite enormous. Here is a video I took from the bus window, to the sound of Sabre Dance (so turn up your sound!):

Massage - with a cow horn

Realising that I was particularly stressed - as my neck was like concrete, I decided to venture into a busy massage place - which looked quite legit. What an experience!

For AU$30 I had 90 minutes of foot reflexology, ear cleaning, back, neck and head massage ending with what can only be called a facial.

Hot towels, cupping (popular in Chinese medicine), prodding and scraping with various implements - one of which was a smooth edged cow horn. The young male masseur, probably straight out of massage college, was snappily dressed in a black trousers and shirt with maroon tie and maroon silk waistcoat. Our language difference caused few problems, as he was able to interpret my ow's and ah's.

While he was viciously prodding my feet, which was quite painful, a woman came in to the room with a miners light, and an assortment of gear including a swag of miniature bottle cleaners. After my lug holes were appropriately reamed, she chimed a tuning fork and held to an implement stuck in my ear causing my lug holes to resonate at the same pitch.

I feel better now! Although I have cup bruises (no less than 13) all over my back.

Here is a video of some other people's experience, probably at the same establishment.