Qingdao day 2

Wow, I'm a few day behind. I had problem with my internet last night so I couldn't post this

   The next day was an early one, b/c I had invited some new friends along with me and we wanted to take the public bus to Lao Shan (Mt Lao) which was over an hour ride. I was now traveling with 3 others, Lauren from England, Dave from Arizona and Andreas from Sweden. We met downstairs of the hostel at 7:30am and walked the mile or so to the train station where we would be able to catch our bus. It took us about 20 mins once we got there to figure out where to actually get on the bus and which direction of the bus would take us to the mountain (This was just the beginning of where we found out that 4 heads were better then one). The bus ride was very crowded so at first I didn't get a seat ...but then this really tiny, nice mother squeezed to the edge of her seat to make room for me and insisted that I sit with her. I found out that her son was sitting in front of me and spoke good English, they were heading to the same place as us.

The women in the white shirt is the one that shared her seat with me.
We ended up seeing each other on the mountain and she wanted a
picture together, so I got one too. You can tell that she was very tiny.

This also meant that we would know when to get off the bus. After about an hour the bus pulled into a parking lot that had a big sign that said "Lao Shan" so we followed the crowd from the bus and got off at this stop. After walking around the facility for a few minutes we realize that this was a depot to catch a tour bus into the Lao Shan area. We hadn't planned on taking a tour bus and none of my guide books mentioned it so we weren't sure what to do. Maybe go back to our bus stop and catch the next bus to take us farther along the route or do we just suck it up and pay for a tour (which wasn't cheap). Since none of us knew what to expect once getting there, we opted to pay for the tour bus.

Left: I'm officially in the Chinese Government database now. I can't figure out why they want your

finger print to get on a tour bus?! Right: The coastline as we drove into the Lao Shan area.

We got off at the first stop so that we could start "hiking".
It was SO amazing to smell fresh air and see some wilderness.

Right from the beginning the concrete steps started.
I had probably climbed a thousand steps by this point
and seemed to be at the beginning still.

We came across a bridge that had thousands of heart shaped locks
tied to it with red ribbon. Definitely thought about D3 at this point
and how much more fun it would be he was there with me.

So this was actually called out on my tour map, Longtan Waterfall. Not impressive, right?!
We all thought it looked as if a man was standing up there out of site holding a garden hose
at full blast. I'm sure it's better in the spring time. Later on in the day we met someone who made
the same garden hose comment about this waterfall.

   There were dozens of these stands all along the mountain. They used irrigation from mountain water to keep the bottled water, sodas and beer cool. Not seen, is that they sold trinkets all along the path also. Really made it not feel like hiking. I think it's very Chinese to not have to plan ahead for a day like this but to expect and find all items that you might want along the way, hydration, food, tea and beer.

We stopped to give out legs a break from the stairs. I downed a lot of water
and ate some snacks that I had brought along. Actually, we all shared each
 others snacks and the guys each had a large Lao Shan brand beer.

For those that didn't know, apparently there are cobras in these woods ;)

We found ourselves at one of the many Taoist temples in the area.

 Not a bad view from the this point.

We decided to take a lesser known route back that included some real trail.
That is a tea field down below.

More of the dreaded steps! Me hanging out in the tea field.

  Along the way we ran into another English speaker. We chatted for awhile and soon realized that he was actually staying in our same hostel that evening. We invited him along to finish the day with us. His name is Asa and he was traveling from Israel.  He had lived and studied in China previously and was really great at speaking and reading Chinese. This was very helpful on the way down when we came across an old man tending to his tea field. He offered for us to drink tea with him so we stayed at the field for almost an hour. Because we had Asa with us we could now ask the man all sorts of questions. Where does he live? How often does he get tourists walking through his fields (apparently we were his weekly quota)? What are all the charms hanging from the tree? Where does this trail lead us? You name it we asked it b/c we finally had someone who could translate.

We continued on our way.

   Once getting off the mountain we realized that we were in a spot that the tour buses would not stop at so we had to walk along the mountain road until we could find a bus stop. It was getting late and we were all getting hungry since we really hadn't had a meal all day. We just wanted to catch that last bus of the day and get ourselves back into Qingdao so we could eat a hearty meal. We fought for seats and about an hour and a half later we were back in Qingdao.

One of my last views before leaving the mountain.

   We had all noticed the day before that a particular small restaurant near our hostel was always busy so we headed there for dinner figuring the food must be good to draw in that kind of crowd. This place turned out to be a  Uyghur ran Muslim style restaurant. Uyghurs, pronounced "Wee-Grrr", are of muslim descent and are not really Chinese. You can tell b/c they look distinctly different, brown hair and round eyes. Read more about the Uyghurs here and about the larger Chinese ethinic group that they are classified under, Hui people. In the regions where the Uyghurs come from they don't grow a lot of rice so their main staple is noodle, but not like traditional chinese noodles, more middle eastern. With all that said, we had one of my favorite meals so far in China. Check out our feast:

Clockwise from the bottom red plate: Small noodles in a tomato sauce,
fried rice, eggs cooked with tomatoes (so simple but so good!), beef
covered in cumin, lamb cooked with onions (my favorite on the table) and
traditional Chinese style noodles in broth.

   Overall it was a very exciting day. Made it back to the hostel around 9pm, stayed up for a small beer and hung out on the rooftop bar then called it a night, went back to my room to watch an episode of Psych and fall asleep.