One of the most unusual things I had to adjust to here in China was the lack of religion. You won't see anybody on the street passing out the Koran or even the Vedas. I get asked quite a bit by people back home about religion here. One of the questions I am most asked is more of a statement of "Isn't religion banned there" (coming from people in the Southern US it refers to only one certain religion). The short and easy answer is no, it is not banned. One of our teachers wears a cross and reads the Bible before we come in. She also told us about a church nearby. Communism, ahem excuse me, the People's Republic strongly believes in separation of church and state. Strongly. Everyday people, however, are free to practice what they wish, but only in proper places (You won't find the anti abortion people here). As a matter of fact, one of the biggest breaks here is a traditional Chinese holiday stemming from the old belief system. Tomb Sweeping Day usually falls on the 5th or 4th of April, with students getting three days of the week off. On the actual day of, families reunite and visit the resting place of their ancestors, bringing flowers and incense and cleaning the area. As international students however, and having no Chinese ancestors, a few of us had a different idea.
    To the east and south of Beijing, on a small peninsula jutting out into the Yellow Sea lies the small city of Qingdao. Next to Qingdao is China's highest coastal mountain: Laoshan. My friend Fil, along with Andrew and Rhoda and myself all bought high speed train tickets and saddled in for the 5 hour journey across China's eastern seaboard.
  In all honesty, there is so much I could say I do not even know what to write about. I could go on about the history of Qingdao, starting out as a German town. Or maybe that the small city of Qingdao is bigger than Atlanta in both population and size. I could go on and on about how fantastic our hostel was. Don't even let me start talking about Laoshan, one of the most scenic areas I've ever experienced, and it was still Winter. Me and Fil and our lemur adventures. We also did activities such as flying kites in the park, biking around the city, biking along the coast, and cementing my dislike for seafood. I took more pictures in those five days than I have on any other trip in the States. In short, that trip forced me to like China, and I did so very willingly. I say "in short", but who am I kidding? This is going to be one long ass blog.
    As I mentioned, the journey south was on the high speed rail. The trip was pretty uneventful, besides passing thousands of greenhouses. Again, that is not a hyperbole, there were thousands of them. I sat with a friend from my class, slept, and studied some Chinese. Fours hours after starting the trip, we arrived in Qingdao. Eager to experience somewhere new, I rushed out of the station, barely noticing the hawkers selling stuff I'll never need, and burst into the night air. The first thing I noticed was the air. The clean, crisp, and salty smell of a seaboard city was definitely, without a doubt, missing. This fact bothered more the next day than at that moment, and we'll soon get to that part. We still found our hostel without any trouble, checked in and dropped off our bags, then headed out. We found some district full of seafood, and I, attempting to be a brave soul, endeavoured to try some. All in all, seafood and me might have to wait some time until we agree with each other. The four of us heading to a pier/scenic spot and bought some small necklaces from the vendors there.  However, we all went to bed early that night, for the next morning was beginning at 5a.m.
   Laoshan is a Taoist sacred mountain next to Qingdao. While not being one of the five sacred mountains that a practicing Taoist must pilgrimage to, it is the highest mountain on China's 18,000 mile long coast. Many people each day wind their way up and around on a meandering path made in the shape of the Taoist symbol, with eight gates representing the eight stages of life. It is also thought to be the main cradle of Taoism. But at 5:30 in the morning, it was the place of "Why the hell am do I want to go there". All four of us, even though we promptly rolled out of bed and left the hostel for the first bus going to Laoshan, were very quiet and-at least myself-a little grumpy. My grumpiness was less because of the hour, and more so because of the air. As I looked around, I realized that you might be hard pressed to find an eastern city in China with consistent blue skies. My grumpiness deepened as the sun came out and did not lift the "fog" as a Chinese person insisted on it being. As a matter of fact the fog (which was only in the air) was still there at eight, when we bought our tickets, and had not moved in inch when we were on our trek up the mountain. At that point though, I hardly cared.
    A few steps in, me and Fil found some boulders situated in a creek. It instantly reminded me of the streams in the Smokies. We spent the next hour scrabbling around these rocks, leaping from one to the other, calling ourselves lemurs. It was fantastic, kid fun. The trip up the mountain seems nearly a blur by now. A blur of four friends climbing thousands of steps up and up and up. Scenery that reminds me of Rohan from Lord of the Rings. Gigantic rock formations at the oddest angle jutted from a nest of evergreens, and all the while we were wondering what the other side looked like. This blur of a memory cements itself by the impressive nature of the mountain, while even though Winter was still upon it, managed to have incredible beauty. At the top, with wind that toppled me over more than once, I was again reminded of the "fog". The unheard of view of the sea was at that time unseen as well. That still didn't stop me from having my breath taken away though.

The day continued on, the trip was supposed to last four hours, according to the Lonely Planet. We left that mountain at 7 p.m., after nearly twelve hours of hiking. The highlight of the day was hiking up to one of the many lookout points. It overlooked the other side of the sea, away from the city. Next to this post I noticed the outcropping next to us was rather tall. A closer inspection and I realised that it went up and became the 2nd highest point next to the observatory peak. An even closer inspection and I discovered that it was very difficult to climb up, maybe impossible if someone had never climbed before. This rock face, coupled with the fact it was not allowed reinforced my wish to conquer it. Fil joined me and together we managed to get all the way up.                                                                                                                               

A view from the Top

We made a view videos, wrote some things, took pictures, then headed back down. The pollution had finally lifted a bit and the views on the way back were far better than the morning and afternoon. Continuing our former lemur adventures we leapt from the rock into a tree in order to descend all the way. The day's adventures were for the most part completed, as we headed back to the base, took a black taxi to the nearest bus stop, ate some phenomenal pizza, and crashed into our beds.
   Sunday rolled around, and we all realized we absolutely loved this city. All four of our tickets had us leaving Qingdao that day, but each of us wished to stay. We ended up going to the train station and switched them out. Rhoda and I would be leaving Tuesday, Fil and Andrew Wednesday. Then we hit our next hurtle. I had only booked our hostel for two nights, not four or five. As being the top rated hostel in town and on a holiday, they were booked. WE could still leave our stuff there, however, and they had a bar where we could eat and play games and lounge. I began practicing my Chinese on one of the ladies at the front desk, and soon discovered it was she who managed the place. About an hour later of talking, she mentioned that since there were no rooms, that two of us could sleep in the full bed in the DVD room, and the other two in the bar, all for 20 kuai each. This was possibly the greatest deal ever, and we all four unanimously agreed. The next two days passed by with biking adventures and flying kites. We saw as much of the city as possible, made some friends, and simply explored. The last day we four, along with to other Tsinghua students we ran into there, visited the Tsingdao brewery, the most famous beer in China and it's origin.

Us acting stupid in front of the Beer Fountain

Rhoda and I left that day, and one quick journey on the train, we were back in the hustle and bustle of Beijing. However, this blog does not end here. There was a specific reason why I wished to return of Tuesday. I mentioned before that this break was due to Tomb-Sweeping Day, which fell on that Wednesday. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Ming Tombs, and I decided it was rather poetic if I did so on Tomb-Sweeping Day.
   Rhoda, Shawn (a fellow Vol) and I took the rather treacherous journey a good hour outside of Beijing to get there. And once we did we found ourselves at an extremely busy tomb. Cars were all around us, tour groups waved their respective countries' flags. Chinese tourists abundantly snapped a million pictures. This was not at all what I imagined. I checked the other tombs' information and found that one of them was supposedly serene. Another black taxi ride later, and we arrived at the Zhaoling Tomb.
   It is impossible to describe this garden, for tomb does nothing to conjure up the proper image. We were the only souls around, and the very old cypress trees stood sentinel. The palace was magnificent, and the views even more so.

We found some bamboo brooms in that very Soul Tower, swept it with vigor, then looked at the view of the mountains we were in.
   That holiday showed me parts of China that I had always imagined it to be. The walls, palaces, temples and scenery all finally became a reality from a boyhood imagination. This was only made better by spending it with some of the best people I've met. I might not have understood what is to be religious in China, or even what their belief system truly is, but as I stood on that palace, overlooking the plains and hills, I understood the majesty of such a land, and why it evoked so much wonder in the people of the past. It certainly showed me that China has much more to offer than any one city.