20250916 Tuesday, September 16, 2025 Qingdao

20250916 Tuesday, September 16, 2025 Qingdao

The ship was still sailing in open waters when we awoke, and it was raining quite hard.  The ship eventually pulled up to the new cruise ship terminal at Qingdao about a half hour later than originally scheduled.  We had breakfast delivered to our room to save time, but there are so few horizontal surfaces in the room to put all the plates and trays that come with breakfast that it becomes an awkward juggling act to figure out how to eat it.  If the weather had been decent outside, the balcony furniture would have been a big help, but it was pouring down rain and still very hot and humid outside.

When the ship did finally get secured and the gangway mated to the ship, we headed off on our included excursion.  This started with a half-mile walk from the ship through the cruise ship terminal to where the buses were parked.  This new terminal appears to be designed to handle the world’s largest cruise ships and up to 30,000 passengers a day when at full capacity.  Today, we were the only cruise ship.  It’s too bad we were tied up on the very end of the pier instead of at the very front, closest to the shore.

Our included excursion was a bit of a disappointment.  There was about 40 minutes of driving around the city in the bus with our guides talking about the history of Qingdao, including its colonial period and how the Germans and Japanese both coveted it for its deep natural ice-free harbor.  Also, unlike in Shanghai, Xiamen, and most other coastal cities near major river deltas, Qingdao sits atop an extinct volcano, so bedrock is very close to the surface, making it easier to build high rise buildings. In Shanghai, some of the buildings actually have to actively freeze the ground around their foundations to support the weight of the buildings above.  Long-term loss of power could spell certain disaster for those structures.

Although our guides did point out the colonial city center and current city center, and discussed the architectural and infrastructure differences, it was hard to see them through the bus windows as the bus whizzed along through the streets.  They pointed out the May 4 park sculpture as if flashed by miles down a side street as the bus crossed an intersection.  It was impossible to get a photo of it, and we barely even got a glimpse of it.  The same could be said of most of the other landmarks they tried to point out as we whizzed past them, including the Tsingtao Beer Museum and Brewery.

Old City Hall

Tsingtao Brewery and Museum

Tsingtao Brewery and Museum

Tsingtao Brewery and Museum

TV Transmission Tower

Modern City Hall

Seen around Qingdao

We stopped briefly at the old town square where a Catholic Cathedral was built by the Germans.  There were a lot of people on the bus who really needed to use a bathroom, but the nearest public bathroom was a full city block from the cathedral.  We just barely had time to figure out how to get around construction fences set up in front of the cathedral to be able to get pictures of it before it was time to load back up into the bus and leave.  During Mao’s cultural revolution, the crosses atop the cathedral were pulled down, but someone saved them by burying them on a nearby hill.  Years after Mao’s death, the crosses were restored to their original positions. 

The next stop was more satisfactory. This was the Zhangqiao Pier, which is a nice waterfront park with a long pier extending out into the bay with the octagonal 2-story Huilan Pavilion at the end.  This Pavilion is featured on the Tsingtao Beer logo.  There were schools of sizable fish swimming around and lots of roving photographers who offered to take photos of people, showing examples of their work on tablets.  It appears a lot of Chinese women do use these roving photographers.  Some offer props and are well-practiced in posing subjects for glamour shots.  

We got to walk around this park for about 45 minutes before we were herded back onto the bus.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for one lost passenger to be rounded up by one of the guides, who had to run from the bus meeting site all the way to the beach to find and bring back the wayward man, who received an embarrassing round of applause once he was back on the bus.

It was fortunate that the rain had stopped while we were walking through the terminal building in the morning.  During the tour, it was mostly sunny and in the mid-80s.  

After returning to the ship, we had a quick lunch.  Janet took a nap while Ben took the ship’s free shuttle back to Old Qingdao, which is a neighborhood behind and down the hill from the Catholic Church that was built by German colonialists.  

There is a lot of historic architecture and preserved buildings in the neighborhood, many of which have plaques explaining their histories.  It was a bit ironic to find Burger King in one of the more historic buildings in the area.  

The neighborhood was very pleasant to wander through.  Clouds had moved in, dropping the temperatures a few degrees, and there was a light breeze coming in off the water.  There were no crowds, and the streets in Old Town were a pedestrian mall with no zooming scooter traffic, little smoking, and lots of unusual and cute shops and restaurants.  

Locals call these magic beer machines and they are just on the side of the streets.

One courtyard was turned into a Little Havana, complete with a Pink Oldsmobile parked out front. 

On the outer perimeter, it was easy to find little hole-in-the-wall bodegas selling this and that.  You could pick up a pair of crock-knock offs that everyone seems to be wearing for just ¥16.  For some reason, they only seem to come in white and cream colors for that price.

We caught a little of the end of a talk on Chinese mythology and folk tales and caught a little on the Eight Immortals and the Monkey King.  The Chinese had a way of melding fantasy with morality and epic journeys in fascinating ways.  The mixing of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucian teachings may have something to do with the way these tales are told and their popularity.  Daoism is concerned primarily with one’s relation to worldly concerns, Buddhism is concerned with one’s relation to the universe, and Confucianism is concerned with one’s relation to other people and society.

Tonight’s dinner was a hot pot dinner.  This is unique to the Viking Yi-Dun and is only done two nights during this cruise.  Reservations were required, but they don’t advertise it anywhere.  We were fortunate to have it mentioned to us by a head waitress when we were booking reservations for Manfredi’s and the Chef’s Table.

This was an authentic hot pot with a twin cauldron in the table with a chicken broth side, and a spicy beef broth side.  We received quite a variety of items to put into the hot pot including fish, shrimp, fish balls, lamb, beef, mushrooms, different tofu styles and veggies.  We’re not sure if the spicy side was an authentic Chengdu recipe, but it was certainly spicy on the Scoville scale and also contained the numbing Szechuan pepper corn and anise flavors.  It certainly made our noses run.  We were seated outdoors.  There was a thunderstorm earlier in the evening which left puddles all over the Aquavit Terrace where the hot pot tables were set up, but the storm had also cooled the air temperature down into the mid to upper 70’s so it was quite comfortable to dine outside, especially with the boiling cauldrons of broth between us.  

We finished up the evening with a vocal performance by Arann, the cruise director’s staff who had been hosting the trivia during our sea days.  We had missed his first performance, which had occurred during our overland excursion.  He sang a variety of pop songs from Buddy Holly and Elvis to Elton John and Billy Joel.  He was backed by a canned sound track, rather than a band.  He would be really awesome at Karaoke night.

The ship remains docked at Qingdao overnight and will set sail shortly after noon tomorrow.  Sadly, we received our disembarkation instructions and luggage tags this afternoon, signaling the end of the cruise is just around the corner.  But after we disembark, we will still have a bit more touring as we will fly to Chengdu, Xian, and Lhasa before returning to Beijing for our return flights to the US.