Jul 2008

We had decided we would leave the apartments at 9 am on Saturday morning. We would catch a taxi up to the long distance bus station. Although this is a short distance from the apartments it appears that the others would rather catch a cab up with their luggage.

At the bus station we bought our tickets and were escorted to our bus. The bus cost Y22 and takes 1.5 hours and leaves every 30 minutes.

The bus is really a coach. It is quite comfortable with lots of leg room and air conditioned. On the way to Jinan the trip was pleasant enough except for the man who sat in front of us snoring all the way there. When we arrived I woke him up.

The bus trip home was rather boisterous. Some Chinese men got on the bus who had been on the soup all day, from the smell of them. They wanted to sit next to us. We moved them on. They wanted to take photos of us. Which we avoided. They had to ask the driver for a toilet stop.

On the way in I saw a restaurant with a sign - Chinese Western Food and Italian Coffee. I had made up my mind that is where we would have lunch. I have to convince the others. I can be very persuasive when I need to be.

We all decided we would have BLT's. I was also going to have a latte.

Our drinks arrived. The latte was the best I had had since I had left home.

When they delivered the BLT they only delivered one. So we then tried to explain we wanted three. Thinking we got this right I also ordered another coffee. Yep I was going to be bouncing of walls tonight.

The next BLT arrived. We had to explain we wanted another one. How on earth did they ever think that 1 BLT was going to be enough for 3 people?

Sunday afternoon we found Jenny's cafe. Everyone raves about Jenny's cafe. It has western food. I was amazed at the menu. I settled for a wrap. It was delicious with feta cheese, red onion, olives and balsamic vinegar. We decide we would be back in the morning for breakfast.

We went to the shop next door to check out the western food. It was here that I found camembert cheese and Paul's milk from South Brisbane.

We came back the next morning for breakfast. We ordered one of everything on the menu and split it between the three of us. I think they thought we were made. I had a latte but it didn't compare with the two from the day before.

We then went next door and stocked up on our Western goodies.

Prior to heading to Jinan I did some research on the internet for accommodation.

On the Bus in I saw a hotel which was one that I had researched and was within walking distance to the hotel. So when we got of the bus we decided we would head there.

The internet was quoting Y198per night. The hotel was 4 star. When we went into the hotel they were asking Y580/n. I wasn't paying that when I could pay Y198. I asked them if they had an internet facility I could use. They allowed me to use it and I went online and made a booking. Rebecca was embarrassed that I would do such a thing.

I went back to the front counter. They asked if I had a booking and I said that I did and I gave them the booking number. Here I had 3 rooms for Y198/n. The cost of the room included breakfast.

The hotel was called the Sunshine Business Hotel. It was pleasant enough. The rooms were small but clean. One very amazing thing is that the hotel had face washers. No hotel I know ever has face washers. I always carry my own.

They had instructions for the internet - "if you want to swim on line". You have to love direct translation.

On Sunday morning we met for breakfast. The breakfast didn't really cut it for Barbara or myself. Can't quite do noodles for breakfast or porridge with beans.

Contrary to what I had been told I was amazed at some of the beautiful sights.

The springs we could not find although I am told they are over promoted and not that exciting.

The parks are pleasant. And once again it is so nice to see the Chinese people utilizing the parks.

The Chinese style Mosque dates from the late 13th Century. Admission is free. I was surprised that they let me in as I had a skirt on. They wanted to know if we were Muslim. Although none of us are they did show us through and spoke some English. The also showed us the prayer hall. We went into the souvenir shop but they wouldn't let us buy anything as we were not Muslim. I fully appreciated this. I wanted to donate them some money purely because they had been so kind but they wouldn't accept it.

We spent ages walking through Thousand Buddha Mountain. The statues were amazing. Admission was Y15.

We thought we were catching a cable car only to find that it was called a slide way. The slide way was Y30. It was like going on a roller coaster. You sit on a sled and you have a stick in front of you to go and stop. At the top you get off. I had sore abs from bracing on the way up. Going down was heaps of fun.

Barbara and Rebecca were going to try and get a refund when they saw it wasn't the cable car. I convinced them it was worth going up and it we didn't like it we could find the cable car to get back down. They were happy that they didn't miss the experience. The cable car was only Y25.

Jinan museum is not far from the Mountain. The admission was free. When we entered the museum it was a sea of colour. Some of the most amazing pictures. When we looked closer the sea of colour was photographs from the quake that hit on the 12 May. The photography was amazing but soon became very depressing.
There were several galleries some were devoted to painting others to calligraphy and ceramics. There were no English captions so a lot of the information was lost on us.

The real reason for going to Jinan was to watch a football game. However we thought we might as well go for a weekend and being that none of us had to work on the Monday we would make it a long weekend.

Jinan is the capital of Shandong Province. It has a population of 1.96M. It is very modern and like myself most people just use it as a transit point to other places in Shandong. There have been a lot of famous people who come from Jinan such as Bian Que who was the founder of Chinese Medicine.

South of the train station you will see the German influence. It is not as prominent as Qingdao but the streets are lined with European style architecture. The city itself is quite picturesque with plants and grass.

The modern development from Jinan stems from the construction of the Jinan - Qingdao railway line when construction started in 1899. The construction finished in 1904 and gave the city a major communications role. Jinan was opened to foreign trade in 1906.

I was quite surprised at how sprawling the city was. Everyone had told me that there is nothing to do in Jinan and everything is in one big square. I found it quite different to that.