We had Thursday and Friday off of this week for the May Day holiday. Here it is celebrated more because it is International Workers' Day. Originally Makenzi and I were just planning to take a day trip to Jinan, but then Casey invited us to go to Rizhao. It is a coastal city about 4 hours away from Qufu. QinHong joined us, so it was the same four of us girls as Shimenshan.
We had to be on the bus by 7, so we all met up at the south gate. The bus was almost brand new and it was a very nice coach bus. It took us about 5 hours to get there because of all the traffic and once we got there, we had lunch. We ate all of our meals at the same place and it I thought it was all pretty good.
We had to be on the bus by 7, so we all met up at the south gate. The bus was almost brand new and it was a very nice coach bus. It took us about 5 hours to get there because of all the traffic and once we got there, we had lunch. We ate all of our meals at the same place and it I thought it was all pretty good.
Since Rizhao is on the coast, there was a lot of seafood and fishing. The area in which we stayed was a fishermen residential area, so there were many people with nets and their catches of the day trying to sell us food. I also learned that one can eat starfish meat. I tried some but it did not have much taste.
Sadly, there is also a lot of waste, since seafood does not last long. These starfish were not sold and thus discarded and smashed into the pavement by many buses.
After lunch, we went to one of the beaches where we got to play in the water. No one here actually swims, but many people just get their feet wet or play in the sand. Some of the sand was course, but as we got closer to the water, it got finer.
Everywhere there were things to do. There were things on the water (like the bikes) or the amusement park on land.
As we headed back to the bus, we stopped to buy a couple things. I bought a sun hat and a snack. The snack was pounded sweet rice with a strawberry filling. In Japanese it is mochi, in Chinese the outside is nuomi. I really liked it, although the filling was not very flavourful.
After the beach, we went to a tide pool. Like in Qingdao, people were looking for crabs or other things. Since there were so many people, there was not much wildlife, but I was able to catch a really small crab! It was the only thing any of us found.
The crab was so small and kept moving, so it was tough to get a good picture.
There was a man using a screwdriver to detach little oysters from the rocks. He had quite a few, but it was a slow process to find some decent sized ones and to get them off. But he had many in his bag.
Unlike how Makenzi and I usually travel, the tour bus did not stop at any historical places or at other tourist sites. Instead, it was all beaches and, from what I can gather, Chinese tourist traps. That is, there were these big warehouse-looking shops that were just selling local products or other goods. For Makenzi and I, we had no idea what was going on or what we were supposed to do, so we did not buy much. There were others in the group who did buy many things. As it turns out, Chinese tourists sign up for the tours to just buy goods and take them back home and not really to see the tourist sites that Westerners might go see in a city.
We were all pretty sure this was a real, dried shark carcass, but you can also see some of the food packages behind it.
We were all pretty sure this was a real, dried shark carcass, but you can also see some of the food packages behind it.
After dinner on Thursday, we all took a walk to the beach nearby. There were some old fishing boats beached there and some people camping on the beach, waiting for morning to see the sunrise. We stayed there until it started to get dark and then went back to the rooms, where we played card games until bedtime. So, a nice, relaxing way to end the day.
The next morning, we had breakfast and then went to another beach. From the paring lot, there was a small park before we got to the beach and a view of a part of Rizhao.
There was a small hotel where the individual rooms were bubbles. They looked kind of cool looking, but we looked at the prices and they were very expensive.
There were many activities offered at this beach, all of which were way over-priced, but since we had not spent money on much else, Casey, Makenzi, and I went on a fast motor boat out into the water and saw Rizhao from the sea. It was 60 yuan for a 6 minute ride. Complete rip-off. Makenzi and I also decided to ride on the ATVs, which were even more of a rip-of because they said that it would could be 10 minutes for 50 yuan. It turned out to be a little less than 5 minutes and one of the owners sat on the back and tried to control where we went, which was a lot less fun than being able to completely control the ATV. We understood that they were on the machines for liability reasons, but it was still not quite as fun as we had hoped or imagined it would be.
After the beach, we went to another tide pool area, but we did not catch anything.
After a quick lunch, we went to one more super store that sold jewellery and more food. None of us bought anything, but it was nice to just look at things.
After all of this, we came back to Qufu. It was an interesting experience to go with a Chinese tour group, but since it was with Casey, QinHong, and Makenzi, I still had a lot of fun. The cost of the tour (hotel, meals, transportation) was 125 ($20). In total, I spent considerably less than if I had travelled on my own, but I think I still prefer to travel on my own, so that I can see and do a little bit more of what I want. Nonetheless, I guess no stay in China would be complete without experiencing at least one Chinese style tour.