Today we traveled to Qingdao. It’s on the coast of the ocean, and it took us about five hours to get there.

Not only is Qingdao famous for its seafood, but it was home to some of the water sports during the Beijing Summer Olympics. Also, Qingdao is known for its production of the beer called Tsingtao.

The first place we visited was a boardwalk. It was a nice change of scenery — the ocean was very peaceful and the temperature was much cooler than at Shandong University.

Beside the boardwalk was a small park where people were flying kites. Some of the kites people had were different from home; they were circular and spun near the ground.

After stretching our legs on the boardwalk for an hour, we headed to the governor’s house.

The rooms were very open, with windows in every room. Some of the rooms had windows from the hallway, so the governor could see if he wanted to eat with the guests.

I found it very interesting the house was westernized. There was a record player in some rooms, and one room contained a fake fireplace. The bathroom had a western toilet and bathtub, too.

When we completed the tour of the governor’s house, we went to another pier. This pier was much smaller but had a pavilion at the end.

Michelle (Ni) and I went inside, and found several souvenir shops and tanks along the wall containing sea creatures. Some of them had colorful fish and coral, and others contained different types of turtles.

However, there were a few tanks that contained a strange looking creature that was white with four legs. After asking some of the people in our group, we found out it was called a mudskipper.

I wonder if they’re common in China, because there were plenty of them in each tank.

— Katie Haughey, a junior psychology major