Swine flu vacation to Qingdao

After just two days of class, class was over. Well, temporarily, at least. A number of students had become infected with H1N1, so the school wasn’t going to take any risks: classes were cancelled. The students infected were all sent to the hospital, while classmates and roommates were put into quarantine. The security guards at the front gate took everyone’s temperature upon entry and exit. Well, they allowed those in cars and us foreign teachers to walk by uninhibited. Apparently if you have enough money to buy a car or are foreign, you can’t contract the flu. This was quite a change from the spring, when all foreigners (since we all look alike to them) were assumed to have the flu. Luckily, (for me) China since developed a local case of the swine flu, so I have regained my larger than life status as a foreigner here.

Now, the isolation of the classmates and roommates who were not displaying any symptoms may seem a bit draconian. I don’t deny that it was to an extent, and the authoritarian attitude with which it was carried out is unacceptable. But, in this case, I can’t say it was as extreme as most of what the Chinese government does. Our campus, and eastern China in general, is a petri dish for communicable diseases. Huge populations crowded into small living spaces combined with a complete lack of both sanitary conditions and (in my opinion) poor sanitary education means that diseases will spread here…and fast.

I had the opportunity to visit one of my friends in isolation. I did this partly because I hadn’t seen her since returning, and because she had clearly relayed to me the boredom of isolation, and I wanted to find out if all the rumors I was hearing were true. So, I went over to the building, was stared at by the guard and attendant until Yuxi came down to meet me. The guard stood a few feet away from us while we chatted. We maintained a good three-foot gap as we chatted in the entryway (I didn’t want to give anyone any reason to put me in quarantine). She explained that she and her three roommates were sharing three beds and a desk in an old classroom. I actually taught a class in the building last year. It is definitely among the worse of the buildings on campus, and is mainly just used for offices. She said it was unbearably hot (the fan was broken); they were essentially at a flash shower every other day due to volume of students and supply of showers/hot water. She had only been given thirty minutes to get her stuff together and get to the isolation building. Thus, she didn’t have the time, or calm of mind, to pack well. So, she and her roommates were playing cards and sending text messages to friends (and apparently foreign teachers) the whole time. This was on day two. It lasted nine days. I’ll let you imagine. She was in a quandary because friends could bring her things if she wanted…but her whole class was in quarantine. Because they take all their classes together and live with their classmates…her list of friends to ask was pretty short. And no, I couldn’t help. No boys in the girl’s dormitory. I had dinner with her the other night…she said it was horrible; she was glad it was over and didn’t want to talk about it.

As oft is the case in life, one man’s loss is another’s gain. So, after a day or two of doubt about how long classes would be cancelled, I headed to Shanghai to attend a party at the apartment of a girl from my original CIEE group, meet up with Clark (who taught here last year) and search for some stuff for my computer-(note-the Apple store in Shanghai is not yet open…or just really hard to find). While enjoying some amazing food cooked by Clark’s girlfriend, Danthemanstan called me to see if I was down for a trip. Of course I was, although I’d have to manage with what I had brought for a one-night stay. So, I grabbed an early train back to Changzhou and met up with Danthemanstan, Sean, and Sarah. Jordan had already headed up to Qingdao to meet up with some people from his CIEE group, and it was on a short list of places that would be good for this trip, so we headed up there.

Qingdao is a beautiful, clean, calm city on the beach. For those who haven’t been to China, or are only reading government approved media, saying that somewhere in China is calm and clean is a bold claim. Bold. Because China, in a few words, is crowded, dirty, loud, and busy. Well, actually, the western third of this country consists of a huge desert, massive tundra, an expansive steppe, and no people. But, the aforementioned words apply to the center and east. Qingdao’s traffic was relatively orderly, its streets wide, and sidewalks weren’t too overrun with vendors. The business side of the coast was filled with a not too loud port complimented with hordes of fishermen. Every gap in the boats featured some fit, older Chinese men swimming or doing a pre or post swim stretch/slap. The slap refers to the Chinese custom of slapping/hitting oneself in all sorts of places and ways when doing exercise. My skeptical and American mind sees this as pretty useless, but they did win more gold medals than us in the most recent Olympics, so I am trying to be more open minded about some Chinese health techniques (of course those medals might just be due to 13-year-old gymnasts and massive government rewards for obscure medals).

The pleasure side of the coast featured some great beaches, generally full of couples taking wedding photos. 9-9-09 was a big wedding day in China due to numerology. October 1st (National Day) was a big wedding day in China due to patriotism. We hit that gap in the middle-hence the couples. We spent a day at the beach, haggling beer and umbrella prices in between dips in the perfectly warm water. What wasn’t perfect was the swimsuit I had to buy-it was bigger than a Speedo, but not by much. We spent another day checking out the old Protestant church (Qingdao was a German concession for awhile) and trying to go to the Catholic Church…that was apparently closed to tourists contrary to the guidebook’s “guidance”. Notch one for the Protestants in the ongoing post-1517 tally. When searching for a hotel, I had my first encounter with the “no room at the inn” syndrome for foreigners. Lots of books about foreigners in China, especially just after the 1978 opening, talk about how foreigners are only allowed to stay in certain hotels. Ostensibly this is done to direct foreigners to the nicest hotels that can best serve their needs. Realistically, it was done as a control/record keeping measure, which is why it has pretty much vanquished in most cities. Qingdao is holding on to the tradition in order to most likely boost tourism revenues. My pitiful attempts at Chinese wouldn’t convince them to let us stay…although at first I used whatever charm I may have to convince the receptionist, but the boss was having none of it. The next hotel was too expensive, and we were walking out to genuinely go to another hotel, but it worked as a bargaining strategy: the receptionist came out and offered us a good rate.

Danthemanstan wasn’t keen on the description of Mt. Lao in the guidebook, so he checked out some temples and the old prison next to our hotel while we climbed the famous Taoist and Buddhist mountain. Disappointingly, you can’t climb all the way to the peak (or we couldn’t figure how) but the climb does end in a pretty cool Taoist temple. Cool not because of the figures in the temple (same old, same old) but due to the sweet scenery and views of a mountaintop temple. Among the more interesting things we encountered on the mountain was tan, almost opaque gel that many vendors had for sale. It was made of something that looked like kind of like camel’s hair…but apparently came from the ocean. I tried to have Xingxing translate the name of it (which the vendor wrote down for me) but she said it didn’t really make sense and was more like the local name of the dish less than a description. It was served with garlic, peppers, vinegar, and hot sauce. They gave it some flavor, but it still pretty much tasted like it looked: bland and gooey.

Hands down the best part of the trip was what went into my mouth (that’s not an innuendo). Qingdao is famous for Tsing Tao beer (it uses the old English approximate spelling). It’s essentially the only beer exported from China to the rest of the world, although everyone here drinks Snow Beer (kind of like how you can find Budweiser in Europe, but no Bud Light). It’s pretty good, and uber-ubiquitous around town. You can even get it in a bag on the street: we did. We took the brewery tour, which was mostly through a museum. The best part was watching the bottling room, which despite 17% investment by Anheuser Busch has a long way to go to match the bottling at the brewery in St. Louis. Along with lots of Qingdao beer (including the dark variety) we ate fantastically. Kebabs of all variety were very tasty and go great with beer and some fried rice. By far the best thing that Qingdao had to offer was clams in a pepper sauce. They were incredibly tasty. I admit that I forgot my manners at one dinner and just parked the lazy Susan in front of me and unloaded all of them onto my plate. Now I just have to find a restaurant in Changzhou that serves ‘gala’ the clams…although we’re a bit inland, they might not be quite so good.