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| After finding out last-minute that Rich had a week of vacation from teaching, we looked up airfares and found a good deal to a nearby city by the sea. Besides Tianjin, which is too close to count, Rich has not been to any other part of China. We were pretty excited to experience a little more of this huge country together.Qingdao, dubbed "the Switzerland of China," could also easily be called "the San Diego of China." It's famous for it's well-known beer, "Tsingtao" (spelled before Pinyin was established, like Peking/Beijing). After only an hour-long flight, we arrived in Qingdao (Shandong Province) and tasted a little piece of home as we sniffed in clean ocean breezes and saw green trees without a dusty gray coating.  We spent a lot of time just walking and talking along the boardwalk and the ocean 
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... and eating some cotton candy
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The Qingdao Pier
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While reading through the hotel information book, we discovered that we could buy a gas mask souvenier for 200 RMB. We quickly searched all the closets and drawers, wondering if it was a typo and worried about why we would need a gas mask in Qingdao.
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We found it in the closet next to the spare blankets
Downtown Qingdao at night ... "The Vegas of China"
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Locals catch green algae seaweed stuff ...
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Other locals sell green algae seaweed stuff ...
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At LaoShan, "the largest mountain in China by the sea"
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No comment ...
LaoShan is also home to a large Daoist sanctuary,
where we visited the main temple there, Taiqing Gong.
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The temple itself was not too interesting,
but we noticed a few things that made the trip worthwhile:
1. Temple Rules
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2. Real flowers on trees with real green leaves
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3. A tree as old as when JC walked the earth
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4. How to float coins on water
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5. "Offering basket" in the form of a coin toss game
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Hands-down, the greatest part of visiting LaoShan:
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| Updates from ... the Middle East??
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Nope, we're still in China!
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
This is how it went down ...
New Year's Eve (Feb. 17th), 4 p.m.
Rich mysteriously disappears while Tanya is on a Skype phonecall.
He returns one hour later with two bags of fireworks and sparklers.
New Year's Eve, 8 p.m.
A big group of us congregate by a grassy area just outside our apartment complex.
We attempt to light sparklers and about 10 minutes later, we finally get them lit up and start waving them around like little kids.
New Year's Eve, 8:15 p.m.
Our first firecracker: Chinese military tank
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New Year's Eve, 11:53 p.m.
View from the balcony
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