I'm in love with Laoshan

According to photos I found online about climbing in Qingdao, I learned that Laoshan is the place to visit.  Since I did't have a climbing parter, I decided to just go and tour Laoshan, go for a hike and do some sightseeing.  I also thought I may be able to go boulder on my own for a bit, maybe on the beach!

Photo by qdrocker

I had to do the Asian thing, I didn't really have a choice.  I took the tour bus up like everyone else, and planned to hike down slowly.  Similar to Acadia National Park, the mountains border the sea, creating an unusual marriage of the two.

There was a coastline bus route and a mountain route, though only the coast route was open during my visit.  One interesting thing about national parks in China is that many of them contain old villages with locals still living in the park.  In this case, there were several Cinque Terre-esque villages along the cost, some build-up on rocks.  It almost reminded me of the one time that I visited Sardinia.  Many locals make money by growing tea leaves, which are on small terraces facing the sea.  At the same time, the cherry blossoms are blooming.  It was such as beautiful, peaceful sight.  If only I can live in one of these small houses, and hide from the rest of the world.  Behind me would be multi-pitch cliffs and more beyond what I can see, waiting for me to explore.  Looking out to the sea, there are areas with boulders laying on the beach, as if telling me that it's ok to take a break from the ropes and go play with them for a bit.

There was a Buddhist monastery along the way that I decided to stop and check out.  It was built about halfway up one of the mountains, facing a valley with some beautiful rock faces across.  The scent of the incense filled the air as I walked into the main courtyard, and people paid their respects to the different Buddhas by kneeling in front of the statues. I picked a spot where no one else was at, and did a few bows.  I wasn't really sure which Buddha or what I was really praying to, but I wanted to show my respects.  I think it was the god of earth/land, which is quite appropriate for me. 

Pray for my safety when I go and disturb the rocks.

Pray that nature is gentle to all the people I care about and that they do not end up hurt too badly when they take risks.

After my prayers, I went further up the mountain behind the monastery, where I noticed several large rock piles.  I was sick of crowds by this time and decided that I should go and explore the area alone, with the hope that I could go and climb something.  Anything. 

Behind the monastery, I found a thin trail heading up the hill, between a row of bamboos and a brick wall.  After hiking for about 10 minutes, I found myself in front a large boulder.  There was a small spray paint mark at the bottom of the boulder.  I wondered if that was how they marked the bouldering spots.  I decided to give it a try, though I admit I was scared of getting injured with no one around me.  The problem was really easy, with a face start and continued with a flake up to the top. When roped, I would have gone up with no hesitation.  Without a crash pad and the landing uneven, I hesitated.  Rich just told me that he sprained his ankle bouldering, and he's been bouldering for a long time.  I've only been out once at P-way and another time at Lincoln Woods.  The top was at least twice my height, probably almost three times. After evaluating each move, I decided to give it a try.  After topping out, I still wondered how someone would consider highballing a problem even with a sea of crash pads. 

I tried two more problems on the same boulder and decided that I better not let my excitement control my judgement.  I wandered further into the woods, looking for more rocks to explore.  Finally, I found what I was looking for, something that looked more like the White Horse standard route, longer than a bouldering problem, a bit slabby, but nothing that would injure me badly if I did trip and fall.  I went up some fun corners, then up some diagonal laybacks with ease.  I felt very comfortable and in my element.  After what felt like 'a pitch' of climb.  I looked back into the valley, enjoying the moment. 

The phone suddenly rang.  It was Yu from the office wandering when I was coming back to the office.  The call probably saved me, and kept me from continuing up further and losing track of time. It was already 3:30, and I had a sudden panic.  What if I didn't remember where I placed my pack at the base?  What if I couldn't come down for some reason?  I realized that I was being selfish and probably stupid for going up this high on my own.  Luckily, there was a 4th class way down, much better than the original route.

After my little adventure, I walked for another 10 miles or so along the road, looking out to the sea, hoping for some boulders.  But I was already too tired and the sunset was racing me.  Though I was tired, it was still no comparison to the day when Max and I did our 48+ hour marathon J-Tree --> Pasadena --> Yosemite epic. 

I miss you all, and hope you are all well.        

Qingdao, Tsingtao, the green island

Since I'm not a big beer drinker, I didn't connect the relationship between Tsingtao Beer and the Qingdao region in Shandong Province.  There is a silly beer review I found at another blog about Tsingtao Beer, which gave it a 9 out of 10 rating.  I still haven't tried it yet, but I plan to do so soon.

So why am I talking about Tsingtao Beer?  I'm wanted to take a break from Beijing and so I took the high speed train down to Qingdao!  Located at the coast south of Beijing and Tianjing, Qingdao used to be occupied by the Germans and the Danes, and still has a bit of a resort town feel to it.  The architecture is a mix of western mansions that are about 2 to 3 stories tall, juxtaposed with contemporary high-rise residential and commercial buildings, all looking out to the Yellow Sea.  Qingdao was a big shipping town, connecting to ports like Shanghai and further south.  Some general information about Qingdao is on this website. 

To be honest, I didn't know very much about Qingdao, the green island.  The only reason I even knew about Qingdao was because of the restaurant on Mass Ave.  It's one of the more authentic tasting places on the north side of Boston, and the owners are extremely friendly.  There was a large photograph of Qingdao hanging on the wall, showing western terra cotta roofs and a beautiful coast.  It didn't look like any Chinese city that I was familiar with. 

Conveniently, Hunter is from Qingdao and came to visit his family for the holidays, and I wanted to meet up with him and have him show me a few good spots in Qingdao.  It's Qing Ming Day tomorrow, which is when one pays respects to the dead.  Families burn paper money for the dead, and wakes up early and cleans the family grave.  Typically, only men attend these families affairs, and sometimes it is not permitted for women to participate in them.  I haven't participated in these family rituals for a long time, mainly because I have been in the Philippines, then US, for the last 20 years.  As I walked back to my hotel earlier tonight, I saw several people burning paper money for their ancestors. 

I wish I could share some photos, but my iPhone is still out of commission and I can't seem to transfer images from my cheap phone to my laptop.  Sigh.

There is a really long board walk along the beach (30 km?), with locals and tourists alike stroll up and down the coast.  I even saw a group of shirtless runners, which you would never see in Beijing.  And there were also people on tandem bikes, which I was envious of.  There were people playing beach volleyball, laying on the sandy beach, and eating ice cream.  This is so un-Chinese, I thought.  We were never taught to go sunbathing as kids, so that we would preserve our fair skin.  But the beach was packed with people, and soon I was also drawn to it.  Hunter bought some baked potatoes from a street vendor, and we sat on the beach eating them.  It reminded me of many years ago when my friend Dustin and I sat on the beach in Nice eating rotisserie chicken and baguette, watching the sunset.  All those good memories.  

Tomorrow I'm going to try to visit Laoshan, where there are some bouldering areas by the sea.  I'm a bit nervous, since I don't have a crash pad.  Plus Hunter has to stay home tomorrow with his family, so I don't even have a spotter.  I guess even if I don't get to boulder much, I will at least get to feel the texture of the rocks and enjoy the solitude.

I feel like a fool today

Since I've been in the Beijing bubble, I guess I kind of stopped reading US news.  I forgot to download my Economist on the phone last week, and now guess what?  My iPhone is useless right now anyways.  I forgot to recharge it last night, and it DIED on me.  Now just gives me a not so happy looking Apple logo when I turn it own, forever in a limbo stage.  Sigh.  I guess I don't know how to reboot my jail-broken phone properly :(  And now Rich just told me this morning that AT&T bought T-Mobile?  Where have I been?  So all that jailbreak work for nothing. 

What else did I do this week?  It went by so quickly... Oh I know what I did!  My colleagues and I went shopping at the local bargain market twice.  We went out for LONG lunch breaks to go to the nearby market.  It's a whole floor of little stalls filled with clothes and shoes. I found an image online since I no long have a camera without my iPhone.  It's this packed during the day!

This type of market place is set up for major bargains.  Since I have a southern Chinese accent, I'm at a disadvantage.  This is because we are traditionally known to be more wealthy, more sophisticated, and more easily fooled by northerners.  I don't know how many times I have walked into a store, looking like a bum, and still be treated like a queen.  This is not good.  Once they find out you are from the south, their eyes look like this $$.  And if they find out that you are from Taiwan, then they have three eyes $$$.  IF they find out that you are from the US?  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

So my colleague Yang decided to rescue me.  She has a very explosive personality, and loves to go shopping and haggle.  She is in the marketing department and often has to take clients out to dinner, buy them gifts etc.  She knows the trade so well that she can probably do it in her sleep.  On the other hand, my other colleague Yu is an engineer and has a more mellow personality.  She likes to watch the show but does not really enjoy shopping at the market.

Don't open your mouth, Yang said.
And look at an item like you are not very interested, and definitely let me be the one naming the price.  She continued.

We walked up and down the narrow shopping corridors as we looked for items that we may fancy.  I spotted a pair of jeans.  For some reason I was fixated on the idea that I need yet ANOTHER pair of jeans.  For climbing outside in the cold, I told myself.  I asked her how much it cost.  The salesperson heard my accent, and gave me a very high price 125 RMB.  Yang gave me the Chinese stank eye. It was too late to recover once I opened my mouth.  She tried to haggle it down, but it was too late.  Five minutes later, I was exhausted listening to them as both sides knock each other up and down by 5 RMB increments at a time. 

Why don't I give you 80RMB, I finally lost my patience and said.
That's fine, the seller replied.  And we exchanged goods. 

We moved away to the next station, with Yang on one side of me and Yu on the other, with their arms  wrapped around mine like I'm their shared boyfriend.  (FYI: ladies in many parts of Asia love to hold hands, or have their arms around, etc.)  Yang shook her head as if I just made the biggest sin in the world. 

Yang spotted a Diesel leather wallet that looks like this one.  We are not sure if it's real or not, but it looked decent.  The seller asked for 160 RMB, and they claimed that they didn't negotiate.  Yang didn't care, and started yelling prices back at them.  They just smiled and said that it was the lowest price already.  So Yang said, OK, then why don't I give you 150 RMB.  The seller hesitated but finally agreed on that price.  As Yang had the new wallet in her possession, she dished out her cash.  She laid 135 RMB out on the table, and told them that this is all they are going to get.  Then she swiftly grabbed us along with her and walked away before the sellers even had a chance to talk back at her.  I heard some cursing in the background and them yelling THIEF! but they didn't run after us to tell us to pay up either.  Now that's some real skills!

Apparently you guys also got fooled on 4/1!  We got rain today in Beijing but you guys got SNOW! 
No Gunks and Farley this weekend, you fools!