Sleeping In Qingdao

On the first morning we had until 12 to check out of the dodgy hotel. Barbara and I set about walking from hotel to hotel until we found one that we liked. Based on the experience the night before we asked to see the room. Before we left I had done some research on the internet and had a list with me. With the street signs in Chinese, a limited map we were having some challenges trying to find anything that was on the list.

The first and second hotels were really no better than where we were staying. We entered a third hotel or what we believed to be a hotel only to find it was a bath house as they were trying to give us slippers and gowns. It is all part of the fun!

We stumbled across a tout who had various brochures. One of the hotel brochures was on the list I had researched. We decided to take a look. We checked out the rooms. The view was great, everything seemed OK. However when I did my research there was one particular hotel that looked charming. I was keen to find it. Barbara was also interested. The tout was upset that we didn't take the hotel. Obviously, because she's not getting paid!

After some frustration, buying a map, asking locals with limited to no English we found the Qingdao Beach Castle Hotel. We asked to see the room. It was clean, stunning and quiet. We both agreed that we would like to take this hotel but needed to find out the price.

When we asked the price we were told Y288/n ($48AUD). This was the most expensive of all the hotels we had seen but we were happy with this and told them we would take two rooms. Given my prior experience in Asian countries I asked how much for 7 nights and we bargained them down to Y258/n ($43AUD). We paid our bill and headed back to the old hotel to get our luggage.

When we returned we had two Chinese friends of Barbara's with us - Kwin and Lupy. The hotel reception were now talking with Kwin. The story was they were so excited about 2 rooms for 7 nights that they forgot that it was May Day Weekend during this period and now wanted to charge us Y588/n ($98AUD).

Well I wasn't having this. We were quoted and we paid up front. They offered to reduce the price, throw in breakfast and anything else we wanted. In the end their last offer was an additional Y800. This would increase the cost to $62AUD/n. I still wasn't having it. So in the end I agreed that we would give them an extra Y400 each for their error. I gave them nowhere to go. They had to agree or we were going and they would have to refund the Y3612 ($602AUD). So we ended up staying at this stunning beach side villa for $367 AUD for the week. Quite a bargain really.

Qingdao Beach Castle Hotel has a stunning seaside environment and is an evocative reminder of Qingdao's colonial past, this beach side villa was a German prison in the early 1900's. Remodeled and revamped, it now boasts great facilities and a relaxing atmosphere.

Converted from a German residential villa, Qingdao Beach Castle Hotel is a symbol of modern Qingdao.

The architecture is more than 100 years old with pure German style ambiance. Beach Castle Hotel, used to be a German castle and covers 12 acres. It is a yard style villa with sea views.

The prison has been turned into a museum. We visited the museum which I found a little disturbing. It is not something that I will write about but my pictures may tell the story.