Saturday, October 10, 2009

Weihai, Shandong 6 Jul 09- 18 Jul 09

I had been on a 2 weeks work trip to Wei Hai a few months back. It was the longest work trip so far and it was quite an experience moving around on my own.

Weihai is located in the province of Shandong and sits right next to the sea. There were no direct flights from Singapore so we (a colleague and I went together but came back at different times) took an international flight to Beijing before transferring to a domestic flight to Yantai and then having the company driver drive us to Weihai from Yantai. There were straight flights to the Weihai airport from Beijing but we had chosen to fly to Yantai instead because it rains frequently in Weihai, affecting the punctuality of the flights. And because it was closer to the sea, the winds were more unpredictable for landing. It took us almost half a day to reach. We left Singapore on a 1am flight and reached Yantai only at about 11am. The journey from Yantai to Weihai took us another 45min.

In a cab towards city.

The hotel room is like a self sufficient studio apartment. There was a mini kitchen, washing machine and a dining table. Cozy enough for my 2 weeks stay. The hotel was sweet to have given us fruit plates twice a day.

The weather was pretty chilly, considering that it was Summer in July. On good days, it was really sunny and breezy (about 28 oC) but on bad days, it was really cold (about 18 oC with wind). Day broke at 5am. The people of Weihai were early risers and early sleepers. When the sun rose at 5am, traffic was already moving and the streets were noisy. By 9.30pm, most people were in bed. Weihai is a tourist place for Koreans (Korea is just 2 hours away) and Russians. Majority of the food places in Weihai were Korean. So throughout my 2 weeks there, I've had more Korean food than I've ever had at home. There was a particular japanese shop that served really good ramen though. And I'd went back for their cold ramen for consecutive 3 days.

A summer bug the length of my baby finger; View from my room at 8am; Pedestrian crossing.

Clockwise: The packet says "Barbequed dog meat"; Appetizers from a Korean food place; Bugs are Koreans' favourite snack; The ginseng chicken soup served with rice that had the entire chicken in it and only cost SGD$8.
The beach is 10 to 15 min walk from my hotel and was said to be really beautiful, so I had to take a look for myself. So far, the best beach that I'd been to was the Santa Monica beach in LA. Since it was situated along the coast, it was natural that Weihai has one of the widest variety of seafood. I'd not eaten any seafood during this trip though, wonder why.
Colours for summer; Shops along the road to the beach

So after a 15 min stroll from the hotel, I came to the beach and was not fascinated at all. The beach in LA , or even La Jolla, was much better. The chilly weather made up for it.

On the weekend that I was there, I spent my 2 days walking along the coastline for hours, walking up the pagoda across the hotel, shopping at the supermarket and swimming in the indoor pool in the hotel (which was crowded all the time and I've never been exposed to so many naked people showering together in my life.) Shopping for clothes in China was horrid. I'd took a cab to the shopping district and went straight back to the hotel in just 10 min.
The ground was kids' drawing paper; Clad in slippers to explore the Weihai
Yogurt was my staple drink in Weihai; coastline view; road to the other beach over the hill that took me 1hour to reach
My guide up the pagoda; Peak of the hill that overlooks entire Weihai. Pretty awesome.
Details on the ceiling of the pagoda; Random drawings on a piece of wall by a toothless old man
Cite coffee-My hang out on boring days; Making my way up the pagoda; Point of destination sighted from the main road; shopping district called Big World
On the day I left Weihai, it had fogged up pretty bad. I'd only boarded the domestic airport in Yantai at 9.30pm. (Sat beside a china man who had cleared the mucus in his nose with his hands and wiped on his clothes. Disgusting. ) The flight was originally scheduled to take off at 8.30pm. Even so, it was still held for 30min when I was on the plane and finally took off only at 10pm. By the time I'd reached Beijing International Airport, the gate for my international flight had closed. I'd missed the last flight home for the night and had to take the earliest flight back the next morning. So for 8 hours, I'd sat at the 24hours Mac with 2 cups of drinks, a luggage, a laptop, my ipod and my DS lite that saved me through the night. The next morning, I had breakfast at Starbucks for a cup of warm blueberry muffin and hot caramel macchiato after checking in. Muffin and coffee never felt that comforting. Slept through my flight home after that.

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