"Qingdao (aka Tsingtao)" a Qingdao Travel Page by DSwede

I worked many months in Qingdao. Its about half way between Beijing and Shanghai, along the coast.

Most of my working time was not in the real Qingdao, because that's a little more than 1hr away, I was technically in "Qingdao Economic & Technical Development Area", or KaiFaChu / HuangDao.

I split my time between Qingdao and KaiFaChu. The main city of Qingdao is barely even a blip on the Chinese map at a meager 7 million people. The north side of the bay, the old historic city, is busy with life, history and culture.

The industrial side of the harbor ~400k (all communities combined). The south side of the bay is the "Industrial and Economic Zone".

The north side is rich in old Chinese ways, but has a lot of German influence in the architecture.

Other places that I visited using this as a base camp were Qufu (home of Confucius) and Xi'an (ancient capital and teracotta warriors).

(for more pictures, feel free to visit my China Gallery. If you enjoy the pictures, please leave a comment.)

Also, please see my China page for more general comments.

Where I was working is fairly developed, but mostly industrial. It is still a little dirty and congested, but infinitely more disciplined than India for example (one of my prior assignments). There are lots of things to do also... ok, more for people who speak Chinese, but unlike remote India, there are theaters, bars, prostitutes, karaoke... you know, the staples of Asian life.

Proximity to S Korea with its historical mixing of people and history, along with governmental cutting of red tape has caused the area to be heavily invested in by the Koreans. So it's just like being back in Korea during the work hours, then a minor adjustment and being in China in the evenings. Nothing like assembly-line Korean cafeteria food cooked by Chinese... hmmm yum!

With reclamations of land, changing the shoreline, the south side is growing with apartment blocks, warehouses, factories and plants. The south side is almost as populated with Koreans as it is with Chinese. Honestly speaking, I have a hard time knowing where China ends and Korea begins here.