The recent move of our Chinese company to a new office has taken so much time that I haven’t been able to update my blogs, but now that we are settled all will return to normal . . .
(I’ll tell you more about the move later.)
The Qingdao Beer Festival is being held between the 14th and 29th of August. Here is one of the illuminations advertising the world-famous beer. It is next to the May 4th Square (Wusi Guangchang), which is in front of Qingdao City Hall.
From hostess bars . . . to brothels . . .
In Japan, a type of hostess bar where young women serve you drinks and keep you company are often called “snack bars”. This type of establishment is becoming more and more common in China as well. In central Qingdao (Shinan Ward) that has a population of 2,500,000 of which maybe 5,000 are Japanese, there are at least 50 such bars. These are very similar to those found in every town in Japan, and have a similar range in both price and quality. In fact, there is very little difference between those in China and those in Japan. There is a set fee (cover charge), and then you just pay for whatever you drink, normally by the bottle. These would be the relatively safe bars in town.
In the 5-star hotels, it would be rare not to find a Karaoke Club. In these clubs, about twenty young ladies are lined up in front of you for you to choose one that you like. Since you don’t have the chance to talk with them, you have to rely on appearances and first impressions. But, don’t worry; if you don’t like any of the twenty, another twenty will be brought in for you to choose from.
After drinking beer and singing some karaoke, you then have the choice to go home alone, or to take the young lady who has been sitting next to you back to your hotel room. Yes, these are just dressed-up brothels!
While there is no obligation or pressure to take the girls back to your room, if a lot of the customers didn’t, there wouldn’t be so many of these establishments.
Of course, this is illegal but, especially with the clubs in the larger hotels, they have arrangements with the local police, and so there is supposedly nothing to worry about. Legally, at least.
There are also karaoke boxes where you just go with your friends to sing. These are the same as those common in Japan: just singing and drinking, no girls supplied!
The type of karaoke club usually found in 5-star hotels, and often called “take-out clubs”, are frequently used to entertain business guests, especially those from Japan as it is thought that the Japanese are hoping for and expecting to visit such establishments. As the meal ends, it is quite normal for one of the hosts to invite you to go and “sing some karaoke”. Refusing to go is definitely not good for business. So, the best thing to do is politely accept, go with them, drink your beer, and then just go back to your hotel. Well, each to his own!
Only one week after my last visit to the beach and already the number of people has noticeably increased. The number of tourists from inland cities as well as the number of locals has increased, but the most obvious difference is the increase in the people setting up their equipment ready to provide services and ways for the tourists to amuse themselves. While the water temperature is still a little low for swimming, there are plenty of things to do. You can go for a ride in a boat, or just play on the beach.
(1) Enjoying the warm sand with the protection of a parasol
(2) How about a ride along the beach in a tractor?
(3) Jump in a boat and go for a ride.
(4) Just playing in the sand is fun enough for some!
(5) Walking barefoot, so just leave your shoes on the beach and walk
(6) You can also leave a message, until the tide comes in again . . .
As the Chinese summer school holidays haven’t started yet, there are still very few tourists from the many inland provinces of mainland China that don’t have a coast. However, the beaches for which Qingdao is famous are already starting to become busy with people playing in the sand and sea.
The sea breeze was pleasant, but it will only get hotter from now on . . .
Unfortunately, it seems that not only are BBQs not allowed, but dogs aren’t permitted to enjoy a stroll along the beach.
At the moment, you don’t need a parking spot in order to buy a car in China, and the number of cars is rapidly increasing. There are more and more cars on the road each month, yet there is nowhere to park them. As of January 2010 in Qingdao, there were approximately 1,500,000 registered cars, and that is 160,000 more than the previous year. In the same year, 200,000 or so people acquired a driving license. At the moment, the number of cars on the roads in Qingdao is increasing by 600 a day. That’s equivalent to 220,000 cars a year.
While the number of cars is increasing, the number of parking places is not. There are places along the side of the road, next to the pavement, carefully marked with white lines indicating where to park. However, these are just not sufficient for the number of cars that need a place to be parked, so the lines are ignored, and people park their cars on the pavement itself. The pavement, where people are supposed to walk, is now a parking lot.
This de facto parking lot is not free. It costs about 2 RMB for an hour. Of course, if you don’t need an official parking ticket (receipt), you can just give the man collecting the parking fees 1 RMB, and he will just put that in his pocket, avoiding the necessity to issue the bothersome ticket!
Since there are so many cars parked on the pavement, pedestrians are forced to walk in the road. The yellow bricks with Braille-like markings for the visually impaired are totally covered by parked cars rendering them meaningless.
Every time I come to Qingdao, I think, “Well, that’s about as many cars as there is room for”. However, there are always more the next time.
Where are they going to park them when the pavements are full . . . ?
These photos were taken from my office window, where the streets have quite a wide pavement.
However, no matter how narrow the pavement is,
the situation is the same.
Even when there is a policeman standing
right under a “No parking” sign . . .
