Culture like yogurt

If there is one good thing about traveling away from Shanghai, it’s the extra kick in the pants you get to go see some culture. In Qingdao there was plenty of it (and not just at the Tsingdao Brewery!) Between the food and street performances, I got to see quite a different side of China.

The food fulfilled all of my wildest fantasies, or at least some of the ones I’ve had about good Chinese food. Once the weather got better and we were more adventurous (and less cold), we had feast after feast. There were probably 4 highlight meals, each more astounding than the last. As you’d expect being on the ocean, Qingdao had some great seafood. Though negotiating the menu was darn near impossible, pointing at different meat until we found something we liked got us some green shoots and squid fried up deliciously, with a side of spicy garlic clams. Not to be out done, that night for dinner I finally had authentic Peking duck, with a side of fried fresh shrimp and oddly delicious cabbage. To the horror of those around me, I single handedly saw to every last piece of that duck finding its way into my belly. Look how happy I am and how full that plate is… the duck was gone by the end of the meal, but the smile still remains.

We also stumbled across a wedding reception, which was great news because they had dancing dragons!!! As you can see from the clip, the dragon dancers were really athletic and knew what they were doing. Even though the crowd sometimes pulled back in horror as the flailed about in front of the bride and groom, I was rooted where I stood, unable to take my eyes off the dazzling spectacle.