With May Fourth Square, Marina City, Qingdao’s Old Town, Ba Da Guan district and the shopping streets Part one of places to show your friends during their visit in Qingdao was all about Qingdao’s Culture and nice places where you can spend all your money on beautiful things. But Qingdao has a lot more to offer. With its location surrounded by the sea and mountains you and your friends should definitely escape the city for some days to discover the nice area around Qingdao.
Fushan
Qingdao is located right on the base of Fushan. A mountain range with an area of 7.5 square kilometres. The main and highest peak is in Qingdao with a height of 384 meters. There are no roads but instead natural trails, meadows and pine trees that guarantee a nice hiking tour to the top. Once you made your way up you will be rewarded with a great view over the city of Qingdao, the sea and the beautiful costal area. Best time to go is definitely in the evening to watch the sunset on top of the city. There is even a little shack shop run by a friendly elderly couple selling snickers and beer… amazing.
Laoshan
Bigger, further away and with lots of culture to offer, you should take a whole day to experience Laoshan. It is the highest costal mountain in China with the peak reaching 1132 meters. But Laoshan has more to offer than just a long hiking tour with a marvellous natural scenery of seas and waterfalls. It is said to be one of the birth places of Taoism and thus a mountain of high significance for the Chinese culture. With lots of Taoist temples and nunneries Mount Laoshan offers more cultural experiences than one could possibly place on one day.
Qingdao’s beaches
After hiking up two mountains it might be nice to grant your visitors a little rest. Best way to relax in Qingdao is definitely a day at the beach. Since Qingdao has 6 bathing beaches the decision which one to show is not that easy. One of my favourite beaches is Shilaoren beach. It is the biggest beach and outside of the city center. The second one that should not be missed is bathing beach number 2 next to the Ba Da Guan District.
Best way to discover both, spend the day at Shi Lao Ren beach and watch the sunset near bathing beach No 1.
Coffee Street
In case that is a little too much nature for your friends, take them out for a drink to Minjiang Er Lu – Coffee Street.
With comfy kitsch coffee places next to Italian restaurants and wine bars the coffee street will be the perfect place for your friends to relax after hiking up two hills and discovering Qingdao’s seaside.
Would you like to explore Qingdao as good as Sandra did? Then apply now for an internship in this beautiful city!
Travelling to Hongkong is such an easy thing to do when you are living in Zhuhai. Just catch one of the Ferries from the JiuZhou Port in Zhuhai, relax one hour on the boat and welcome to an amazing city!
Last weekend I went there again and it was like always incredibly awesome. Fortunately I found a hotel room on the Hongkong Island side, right next to Soho.
So, first evening: arriving at night, getting some drinks and enjoying the city. Everything is just completely different to Zhuhai: the architecture, the people, the shops.
Day two: doing the most popular thing for tourists in Hongkong: going to the Peak, with about 300 other people. If you want to go to there as well, please don’t think it will be relaxing. The Peak is completely crowded. Every single person on that roof wants to make the same picture. Here’s a tip: use all your knowledge about getting into a bus or standing in a queue in China: don’t be too nice, just go for it. Then you will have a really nice view over Hongkong.
There a lot of too expensive restaurants in the same building, which are really good. So eating seafood at Bubba Gump Shrimps is always a good choice. Beware of all the tourist shops there. I couldn’t stand it. I went back to the roof at night with a bag filled with Bubba Gump Shrimp glasses and some ‘I love HK’ t-shirts…
Going to the Peak is a lot more comfortable by bus instead of that Peak Tram. You have an awesome view and you don’t need to wait that long. Now I need to say, going down by bus, after some Cocktails and a whole bucket of shrimps is not the best thing to do. So, at that point there were no more else activities in the evening.
Day three: just being the most awkward tourist on earth! Going to Kowloon (wearing the new t-shirts), cross the Avenue of stars, taking a picture of the Bruce Lee star just because it is the only one you know and buy everything on the Lady’s market just because it is cheap.
Last night: get some drinks in Soho.
Getting back to Zhuhai is an easy thing to do. Just go the Hongkong Macau Ferry Terminal and take the next boat.