Field Trip

My previous knowledge of Qingdao was only that it was some sort of Chinese beer. Well now I know that this city used to be a German concession, hence they left their mark by establishing several breweries. But that wasn’t why I was visiting Qingdao. I was here to check out the site that my project team has been working on. It’s an area outside the central city where an amusement park and an eco development will be built. When we made it out to the project site I was a bit perplexed at how such a development would get built. Not only is the site extremely rocky, it is also very hilly and covers a very nice open space area that would be great as a park. Well given that China has to accommodate the growth in its population somehow.







But the most interesting thing on this trip was the inordinate amount of seafood I’ve had to eat while with my team. It seems that whenever they travel its on the company’s dime, so that means that you get to eat out at the finest restaurants and order the most expensive food on the menu. And of course the most expensive food happens to be seafood. So one of our stops was this quaint seaside seafood restaurant with a view of the bay and Qingdao in the distance.



I’m not a huge fan of seafood, but I also didn’t want to be rude to my hosts by declining what I’ve been offered. And of course eating Chinese style means that all the food is served on the table and you eat a small portion as the table spins around to you. At one point there was nothing but seafood on the table not a single carb, vegetable, or meat that did not come from the sea. So some of the more interesting things I had were some sort of sea snail and a pale mini lobster-like creature. Now you know its bad when I’m looking forward to these two items as the table runs around, since my other options where this tube like sea creature which looked a lot like pasta, but sadly was not. There was also this gelatinous cube thing which I was informed was also a sea creature.

(for more photos check out my photobucket page)