a little coffee

Tomorrow we’re off!  Our ultimate destination is Qingdao, east of Anyang on the Yellow Sea. Germans used to own this part of Shandong province and (per Lonely Planet) the city did a good job of maintaining it’s German architecture while incorporating modern architecture. Plus it has loads of beaches and great food so Chris and I’ll hunker down there for a couple weeks. Robert spent a week in Qingdao last summer and is even going back this summer (we have plans to rendezvous at a bookshop in August) so we know that means it isn’t the run-of-the-mill polluted concrete heatbox like so many cities in Henan Province. And every Doodle exclaims “Qingdao is a beautiful city” when we told them we’re going there. So yah for Germans and beaches!

But first! We have a few stops to make. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll arrive in Beijing. We’ll spend another couple days there seeing things we missed the first time around, buying English books and getting our Hepatits A shot that we can’t get it in Anyang. Because they don’t do that here.

Next we’ll take a night train to the small city of Dandong east of Beijing on the Yalu river that borders North Korea. We’ll wave at North Korea, see the most eastern section of the Great Wall, enjoy the sidewalk cafes and mayhaps taste the plentiful seafood or Korean cuisine. From Dandong, a short bus ride south to the coastal city of Dalian, purported to be China’s “most livable city.” We’ll relax on the beaches there for several days or a week before taking the ferry across the Bohai Sea to Yantai. We’ll meander there for a bit and then head on to Qingdao for a relaxing two weeks before returning to Anyang sometime in midish August.

I’m bringing my computer with the intent of updating ye ol’ blog as we go but! I might revert to my inner mermaid with all the beaches around. We’ll see!