Day 1 of an Unforgettable Journey

Day 1 of my 5-day trip to Tsingtao was the worst. We arrived at Tsing Tao in the afternoon. We were immediately whisked off to Weifong, the kite capital of the world. Before then, we had a rest stop. Despite the misty conditions and the overcast sky, the leaves there were in absolutely no doubt that they sensed  autumn in their sap.

We were told by the local tour guide that the townsfolk of Weifong hold the national record for flying the biggest air-borne kite in China. She said that it was 133 meters long. It took more than 50 healthy and strong Chinese young men and some help from the gods to actually fly it! According to her, in ancient China kites had first been successfully used for military purposes: to relay long distance SOS messages for reinforcement at the Tang dyansty and to do surveying but later they were used as toys . Some kites had bamboo tubes as part of their frame such that they would make whistling soundswhen flown. In the olden days, they were made with silk because silk is strong and light but now they are made of either paper and plastic sheets. With modernization, the number of master kite craftsmen has dwindled at an alarming rate. Now the kite making in the traditional way has to be subvented by the Government before it could be retained as part of China's cultural heritate. Otherwise, the secrets of paper and bamboo kite making may well die with the last masters. Kites are now one only of thousthey would do so because they simply cannot make a living as the children nowadays have got all sorts of electronic and other toys. 

Unfortunately by the time we arrived, it was well past 4.15 p.m. and raining. Sunset was real early in Northern China. It was pitch dark everywhere we looked, just like night time. Only a few kite shops were still open for business.  We made a round of two shops in record time. To be precise, less than 15 minutes including time spent in walking from and to the tour bus! But then, still better than nothing! But the shopkeepers were not in a mood for business. I was chased out of the shop by the old lady tending the shop once she discovered that I was merely snooping around to photograph her kites and was not going to make any purchase! So if the photos are few and of bad quality, it should be put to lack of time!
 

 


However, Wei Fong natives are not only good at kite making. They are equally adept at paper cutting. But like kite-making, paper cutting is also a dying art. To help youngsters get interested, paper cutting is now included as part of the art education of the children in the city.

From the way that the kites are displayed, it is obvious if they care about modern marketing techniques.



 


They seem to have a fondness for eagles and butterflies.

The kites appear to be hand painted. No two kites are exactly the same.

 


There are differently colored and shaped butterflies.

And even a tiger. Above the tiger is a gold fish.



 

And a crab-kite. Does it fly sideways?






And also some apparently not meant for active service in the sky. It's anybody's if they can actually fly!

Whether they can or cannot, you'll probably need these wheels and strings placed there on a stand in no part5icular order if you want to fly them.







After the self-propelled and self-motivated whirlwind "tour" of the street of kites, we had dinner at a garden restaurant, complete with trees, ferns, air roots, creepers, flowers, ponds and ...

Water mill, wooden fences, real and artificial rocks.

 

There was even a wedding. Here we find one of the lady receptionists, dressed in red, the traditional color of celebration in China. Beside her were probably two of her close friends. We were told that the bride and bridegrooms were probably returned overseas students because according to tradition, wedding feasts in Shantung are held at lunch time because of transportation problems. She was probably right. I heard on the PA system, a song by, would you believe it, Enya! Shantung is a predominantly agricultural province. It produces 50% of China's wheat. It's the nation's granary. 70% of its population are peasants. Hence tradition is strong, especially the culture of male dominance. Our tour guide, a native born Shantung lady told us that together with 16 other educated ladies, they fought for equal rights with the men to share land and got a court judgment in their favor but when they delivered the judgment to the village authorities, they were told that since it was the judgment of the court, they better ask the court to give them the land, not them. As far as they were concerned, they would simply follow the traditional system of inheritance of land by men only! So they got an "empty court judgment"!

Equal rights or not, the red  flowers in full bloom were there to welcome the bride!

 


After settling down in a hotel at the town centre, I went out to sample a bit of night life.  But the streets were not well lit. So I got some unexpected special effects when I zoomed out.

 

There were trees lit with white light, with red light....

 


which turned into yellow...

And then blue green. In the distance, you see the house of diamond also with changing lights.

Close by the hotel was a "Jusco" department store. So I thought I would go there to buy some fruits and passed by some restaurants. But as it was raining, there was hardly anybody in the streets.

Even the stalls inside the mini food court there was practically empty. On sale were "noodles in clay pots" and "potato noodles"! Never tasted it. Never even heard of it before! And another stall selling barbecued meat.



 

Everything is displayed: chicken wings, fish balls, shrimps, stuffed vegetables etc. No problem even for illiterates.

 

Here are the accompanying ingredients of the noodles: fried tofu, artificial crab meat, squid slices, pork slices (believe it or not fatty pork is more expensive than lean pork in Shantung! No wonder northerners all got high choresterol, high purine  levels and blocked arteries when they grow old), fried shrimp bombs, clams, meat balls, fish balls, luncheon meat, sausages and chicken wings.






Here is a dumping specialist: dumpling in soup, fried dumpling, soup-filled dumplings, glutinous rice dessert  dumpling,  noodles  etc.

But they display only a photograph of the dishes with prices, not the real stuff.

 


This barbecue stall displays everything. 

Its noodles with various ingredients.

Its chicken wings, its beef, its pork, its fried shrimps, its two different types of flat fish and octupus.

We're a nation of food consumers,  We don't care too much about political and economic systems. We leave that to our political thinkers and our economists.  But we do care about our food. For the man in the street, whatever system which can provide for this need cannot be too bad!