Qingdao Part 2

Qingdao Day 2 and again we are blessed with our friend and guide, Weiyou.  We're driving through Badaguan, which means "8 Big Passes", named after the major passes of the Great Wall.  The leafy neighborhood is the home to the old German homes.  It reminds of of the United States.

First stop, the most famous of the Badaguan homes, the famed Huashilou.  It's nicknamed "The Generalissimo's House" since at one point General Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife resided here.

Not your traditional Chinese architecture.

Overlooking Badaguan, we might as well be along any nice seacoast city in Europe or America.  A little slice of Germany here in China!

Memories of the Pacific Northwest!

My obsession with wedding party photos continues!

Next stop, Laoshan.  Here we have Weiyou using his "Guangxi" to pull some strings so we can drive into the park in his private car, and not have to take the tourist buses.  We saw the park in comfort!

"The number 1 combination of mountain and sea"

Laoshan is just a series of a pile of rocks at the end of the Qingdao Peninsula.

Laoshan tea is the northernmost tea grown in China and covers the sides of the hillsides.

The ponds here are to grow and harvest abalone.

The harbor in modern Qingdao

Site of the 2008 Olympics sailing competition.

The view from shore out onto the Qingdao bay and the sailing course.

The flags of the nations.  JPC and I actually had a difficult time naming all of them.  I thought I would get them all.  Time to study the flags.