The Dragon Boat Festival

China has a number of festivals during the year... Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Tomb-Sweeping, and International Labor Day, just to name a few.  This week, we celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival.  It seems that hundreds of years ago, a man threw himself into the river.  He was greatly loved by the people, and boats were sent out to look for his body, while rice balls were thrown into the water to satisfy the fish so they wouldn't eat him.  I have a hard time believing this was one of the most important people in China to honor, but who am I to question?

One quirky thing about China--holidays. The Dragon Boat Festival was June 12 this year, (the 5th day of the 5th lunar month), which falls on a Wednesday.

In order to have a bigger vacation, the government moved the Monday and Tuesday workdays to the previous Saturday and Sunday, leaving three days in a row off work.  But they didn't tell anyone until just a couple of weeks ago.  

We decided to use the three days to visit Qingdao, a coastal city south of us, halfway to Shanghai.

Monday morning, off to the Tianjin West Train station.  (There are 3 major train stations in Tianjin, if you were wondering.)

While waiting, we popped into McDonald's, and Alice bought a pie.  In America, you buy apple or cherry pie (and sometimes peach).  Here, it is taro or pineapple pie.  And it's good!

At boarding time, down to the platform we went, and to the bullet train! 

 When we bought our tickets two weeks ago, the only spaces left were in first class.  It was nice!  But there is no food served (unlike Chinese airlines which serve a snack even if the flight is only an hour long).  I mean there is no food served as part of your ticket price.  A cart comes by with noodle buckets and other snacks for purchase.

 Five hours later, we were in Qingdao.  At times, the train traveled at 302 kmh (187 mph).  The countryside passed in a blur!  I've only traveled that fast in a plane before. We made several stops, otherwise the 300-mile trip would have only lasted a couple of hours.

 And of course, it threatened rain and was cool!  Still, it only took us a few minutes to be wading.

There is something that calls to my soul to be in the water.  I just can't wait once I'm there!

 The hotel recommended by friends was all filled when we tried to make reservations, so we picked another hotel from the Internet, and were mostly happy with it.  

It was a 25-minute taxi ride from the train station.  (bad)

A 5-minute walk to the beach (good!!)

It was also a distance to eateries (bad).  Still, we liked the location.

 The beach had a different interests--sandy beach, rocky shore, and break-water.

 With mountains (looking back from the beach) this began to vie for my perfect vacation spot 

(must include mountains and water).

 Of course we had to skip a few rocks during low tide.  And Alice learned how to do it!

 We wondered if the Chinese guy was going to jump in--but he had better sense than that.

 Our last day there, the sun came out!  Yeah!

Alice and I did go out and play in the waves at a beach filled with thousands of people. One Chinese quirk:  we kept getting told to not go out too far.  An official would blow his whistle at us and wave us in, even though we were only in above our knees!  It was a nice sandy, gradual beach, but we couldn't actually swim.!

 Another quirk--there are no changing rooms, nor are there any places to wash off the sand at the beaches.  So we had to taxi back to the hotel in our salty suits and sandy flip flops.  And thankfully, we hadn't checked out yet so we were able to take a quick shower before the noon deadline.