tsingtao

you are witnessing the symptoms of blog withdrawal, and blog binge.

but as long as i am sitting at the computer, i might as well continue. here begins the tale of an epic warrick-journey to [what we thought to be!] my mother's ancestral home: the port city of qingdao 青岛, in shandong 山东 province. for all of you beer drinkers out there, the germans occupied qingdao for a period beginning in the 1890s and founded the brewery there. their romanization is "tsingtao," hence the title :)

on friday morning, after discussing who would bring toothpaste and debating where to hide dad's laptop for the weekend, the three of us caught a cab to beijing south train station. we successfully passed through security with no less than three genuine swiss army knives (shout out and many thanks to the kaech family), then had a picnic lunch with sandwiches and baked goods from tous les jours (i think of geena and the identical chinese 'paris baguette' bakery in cerritos). we then boarded our super-modern bullet train for the 6 hour ride to the coast. as is his habit, dad spouted "shandong fun facts" all the way there. tallest people in china, third richest province, large producer of wheat and wine, tsingtao beer accounted for 98% of china's exports in the 1960s-70s....


when we arrived in qingdao at 7 pm, mom's cousin yi huang, and his brother-in-law, shui li, met us at the train station. of course, my reservation for a family suite at qingdao's hostelling international proved a faux pas... sometime in our six hours on the train, yi huang had cancelled our reservation and re-booked us at the 4 star 红日酒店 (Red Day Inn) in the scenic badaguan hills area. mom had met yi huang for the first time just two weeks before, while he was on a business trip in california. however, he has been in touch with my aunt and other family members for a while. we had never met shui li, or "jiefu" (his kinship title, literally sister-husband), because he has never been to america. from the start, they were both incredibly enthusiastic, humorous, and gracious hosts. we immediately felt so lucky to have them.

we had a sort of welcoming banquet that night at the hotel. dad received a crash course in chinese toasting customs. of course, we imbibed in tsingtao beer. to quote yi huang's relatively well-spoken english: "i am host. you are guest. i am master!!! when i say we drink, you drink! when i finish drink, you must drink more!" luckily, yi huang didn't actually hold daddy to it. this could be because he and jiefu were appeased by the speed at which i 干杯 (literally "dry the glass"). thank you alpha phi?

never mind all the toasting, these boys were down to business. the next morning, we met at 8:30 to make our visit to yi huang's 84 year old mother... my mom's aunt. the purpose of our visit was to pay respects, and learn more about our own family (i think most people would be shocked regarding how little we actually know). over tea and moon cakes (moon festival is tomorrow!), we learned that my grandmother and her siblings were actually all born in yantai 烟台, which is also in shandong province. we also got what seemed to be a more accurate timeline of my grandma's life before coming to america. in the end, all the info is still quite blurry, but we were most happy connect with some of our remaining family members here, and welcome a relationship with my generation... yi huang and jiefu's daughters, who are 20 and 27, studying and working in australia. another blessing was to see my great aunt growing old comfortably, thanks to yi huang and jiefu's success supporting their family. because my grandma left around 1955, she was absent for periods of extreme turmoil here. disparity and misunderstandings may have strained our family relationships before, but it seems as if it won't have to be that way in the future.



after visiting, we hopped back in the car with jiefu and yi huang to begin our comprehensive tour of the beautiful port city. this included: the german governor's mansion, the catholic church, the lutheran church and famous old clock, the beach, a seaside buffet, xinhaoshan park and pagoda with scenic views of the city and ocean, the badaguan boardwalk, and the olympic sailing complex. from a few of the pictures, i'm sure you will deduce why qingdao is nicknamed "the switzerland of the east." it's a surprisingly nice combination of european and chinese architecture. plus, coming from beijing, it is stunningly clean, charming, and relaxed.





after dinner with yi huang's mother, we were driven home and promptly fell into bed. i will fast forward through sunday because this is too long and i am too tired! of course, the best part was a visit to the tsingtao beer factory and museum. surprisingly, the original factory (1903) and giant modern factory continue to share the same site! father and daughter could have spent much more quality time there together, but we will save that for our next visit.



last but not least, a chuckle-worthy photo of a chinese bride chasing daddy around. perhaps due to the nice weather, and also to the approaching autumn festival, wedding couples were out in full force taking their photos. we [seriously] came upon at least 100 couples throughout the weekend, posing by churches, beaches, parks, what have you. sorry girls! this one already has a chinese wife.