Day 4.2 of an Unforgettable Journey

Cont'd

After downing more beers at lunch, we set out to visit one of the best surveying points in Tsingtao. It was a park called literally "Little Fish Hill" (小魚山), a park of 25 hectares with traditional Chinese style pavilions built around the 60 metre high hill in 1983. There we could have a panoramic view of the whole of the beautiful coastline of Tsingtao and found some of the most beautiful leaves I did  on this trip.





A view of the famous Tsingtao beach. We would be staying at the hotel at the far end of the headland to the right of the photograph

Another view of the same headland.

A zoom in upon our hotel.

A view of the city to the right side of the park. To the left of the photo is what used to be the German area where Chinese were forbidden to enter. What a ridiculous idea! But that is international politics. It's not a question of equality or justice but a question of naked military and political power!





Away from the seaward side of the park, we can see many German style villa type houses. Tsingtao was leased to Germany from 1897 until the First World War when it was taken over by the Japanese. 

The broadcasting tower in Tsingtao.

The inner harbor of Tsingtao in photo 4 opens out to the vast expanses of the Yellow Sea. .

A closer view of the beach.

The pavilion at the highest point of the park.

A lower and smaller pavilion close to the first pavilion in photo 9..

We were lucky again. The weather was excellent. The clouds were simply spectacular!

Another view of the sky

Some red leaves against the sky

Some yellow leaves lower down.

Some leaves in red, yellow and green on a tree on the slope of the park.

The back of an orange yellow leaf.

The front of a red leaf.

Leaves in red and yellow

Some red leaves from a different plant.

Leaves of a creeper upon a tree and on the parapet on the way up the hill sidepark turning yellow and red.

A motley of colors from green, to yellow, to red, to purple from the same creeper.

Look! A mantis amongst the leaves!

The only entry and exit to the "Little Fish Park"

After visiting the Little Fishing Park, we visited the former residence of the German governor which was later used by Mao Tse Tung as his summer residence.

Some school children chatting excitedly before going in to see this famous residence.

A closer view of the solid Teutonic style of the Germans.

The main entrance.

The guest room.

The family room

The reading room or study.

The chapel

The little altar in the chapel

A decorative feature of the chapel made of colored crytals

The other side of the chapel

The main hall of the residence, now showing models of famous ancient buidlings of Tsingtao

Another view of the same hall.

Adjacent to the chapel is a roofed over patio where the family could enjoy a bit of natural light with house plants inside. It is fitted with a very clever mechanically operated system of natural air conditioning for the hot Tsingtao summers through opening the appropriate roof windows to create an a natural draught of air. 

The corridor above the chapel.





A closer view of the corridor light of the same corridor above the chapel

Curtain in the corridor to the various rooms

The other side of the curtain.

The wall light to the main entrance

Another corridor ceiling light

A wall light

Another crystal wall light.

Another ceiling light

The bedroom ceiling light

The children's bedrdroom ceiling light

The light of the dining room.

The sky outside the former residence of the German governor.





After the visit to Mao's summer residence, we went to an old part of Tsingtao. This group of one or two storey wu-tong style old buildings used to be the centre for chopping firewood from bigger logs into more manageable sizes for domestic consumption and for brick making but with the replacement of firewood by other more convenient forms of fuel, it became more and more dilapidated until some one got the idea of converting it into a quarters for small family size stalls and little restaurant serving local snacks. But it has retained the name the place has been called for hundreds of years "劈柴院", literally "Firewood Chopping Yard". This is the monument to commemorate the fact. It is the first "food street" in the whole of Tsingtao.






A statue of a hawker selling barbecue fishballs or meat balls at a street corner.





A statue of a street magician at another street corner.






A view of the narrow alley. You can see the entrance to the yard at the far end of the photograph.






A corridor leading to another old building for popular traditional Chinese opera or drama.






Another corridor leading to the courtyard of another family.

Some of the front of the buildings have been converted into little restaurant. This is serves traditional charcoal fire seafood hotpot.





In front of the shop are displayed various types of shell fish, crabs, shrimps, fish, mushroom, scallions, chives etc.

Various types of live shell fish, crabs and eels are on sale.






Even starfish can be eaten together with oysters, abalones and other types of shell fish. 






Scallops with green with rice noodles, scallions and red chillis





Oysters prepared the same way.

Different types of crabs and crayfish

A local fish






Dried eels.






Dried soles or flounders.






Dried fish meat.






Another type of local fish





A type of mantis shrimps which Cantonese calls " peeing shrimps".






This shop specializes in sizzling squids on hot plates and caramelized chestnuts.Though one of them told me not to photograph her, it was quite obvious she was delighted. So was her colleague!





These two ladies sell sea urchins, crabs and other shell fish







Their sea urchins.




Another shops specializes in beef

This one sells wun tuns. One can see the name "Firewood Chopping Yard" on a placard across its entrance.

This one specializes in small dishes, emphasizing its long history

Another restaurant with a more elaborate shopfront.

There are also stalls selling various types of Chinese style "eggettes".

This one specializes in cold drinks and yogarts served with nuts.






The roadside stall sells sea urchins and "thornapple cakes" or "hawthorn cakes" (山楂糕). I tried both. Quite good.

After the visit to "Firewood Chopping Yard", we went to take a look of the beach. This is the way to the seaside.

Crossing the coastal road to the seaside





There is a long causeway extending quite far out into the further end of the open beach

At the end of the causeway is a pavilion

A view of the coast looking back in.




The townside of the beach

The other side of the beach to the causeway

A hotel right next to the causeway.

On the opposite side of the beach, we could see two battle ships. After all, Tsingtao is a seaport, both commercially and militarily!

As I noticed when I first went to the Tsingtao Beer Street, all manholes for lights had cartoon characters on them. This one is for road lighting.

This is another one for road lighting

This one is for both gas and electricity

This one is for TV.

This one is for general commercial electricity.

So is this one.

This one is for drainage of rainwater

Another one for rain drainage

This one is for sewerage.




This one is for fire services.

After dinner, we went to the equivalent in Tsingtao of our Mongkok, the "Taidong Commercial Walking Street" (台東商業步行街) popularly known as "World Famous Street" (国際金街).

.This is corner of the pedestrian street.

A view of the pedestrian street.

To help give work to artists, the municipal government has authorized artists to paint the exterior walls of various building to add life to them. Thus sometimes, you find the sides of building all painted with various art deco paintings.

 

Different buildings have got different paintings  on them by the same or different artists.

Another painted building.

Still another painted building.

Here you find a young man selling scarves. A little further down, you find another pedlar.

Here you find another tourist taking a rest on one of the benches placed at intervals in the middle of the street checking his text messages.

A middle aged lady selling drinks.

This is one of the "Tai Pai Dongs" specializing in hotpots, small dishes, seafood and barbecued stuffs.

A man doing barbecue meat outside his shop.

This is the equivalent of our "ladies street" in Mongkok. All kinds of stuffs are on sale here.

Customers buying woollen scarves and hats.

On top of every pavilion, you find the same words: "Special, hot, innovative, first rate"

Shoppers buying handbags and shoulder bags.

Where you find people, you find people wanting to eat. This is stall selling fried cakes and to the left is a stall selling roasted chicken necks.

To the right of the stall selling fried pancakes, you find another stall selling spicy soup.

Next to the hot spicy soup, you find another stall selling roasted fishballs, meat balls etc.

This one sells various types of fried bean curds.

The stall on the left sells chicken fillet whilst the one on the right sells Chinese style back pork egg pancake sandwiches.

These are what was meant!

A closer view of what she has to offer as fried pancakes.

This one sells various types of barbecued meats.

A closer view of what she is selling. Plenty of choice: meat, pork, chicken, stuffed, octopus etc.

This one sells roasted bean curd sausages.The stall to his right sells fried fermented bean curds.

This one sells chicken fillets and French fries Chinese style.

A competitor selling more or less the same things.

This one sells roasted sausages and vegetable egg rolls.

A closer look at what's on offer.

This is a specialist on garlic squids.

Squids as they are done!

This shop called "Absolute Taste" specializes" on odds and ends of ducks.

They include heads, necks, feet, gizzards, etc.

This one sells buns.

Meat buns fried or meat fleece.

This one sells barbecued meats done on bamboo sticks.

Piping hot!

Not only are there clothes and shoes for sale. There were also adult electronic game centre.

Shops selling cold and hot drinks.

Another one selling "bubble tea".

This one specializes in lemon drinks and other juices.

This shop on the main street specializes on the caramelized sugar "thornapple"

We found three of our female fellow tour members succumbing to the temptation just before we took our coach back to our hotel.