We are here in sunny Qingdao for a conference, but the Qingdao students run the show, so we have some time to see the city. Yesterday afternoon, we went out to see some of the sights.

As you can see, we were pretty happy to be out in the sun!
The architecture and the "feel" of the city is VERY different than of Chengdu. Some of the downtown neighborhoods retain influences of turn-of-the-century colonial Germany, and they actually reminded us a lot of neighborhoods in New York.

The presence of a large, Gothic-style Catholic cathedral certainly makes this city stand out!

And though the oceanfront areas were bustling with people, the residential and commercial streets we walked through were surprisingly not crowded. Also very unlike Chengdu.

We visited one famous pier, which is pictured on China's famous Tsingtao beer.

It was interesting to see people scouring over the coast, looking for shellfish. With so many people, it is hard to imagine that there is much still alive there! Also, in the background, notice part of Qingdao's new skyline - which extends along the coastline for many kilometers (not pictures).
Here is the Olympic Sailing center.

The Chinese love kites - and we saw some great ones here. Hawks, jet planes, and squids (below).
This is the May 4 Square - and an artistic monument to an uprising against the Japanese from early 20th century.

-alan