Continuing from Day One, Two, and Three: Here’s day Four. Highlights include BEER STREET! Day four we planned to do some beer stuff (I’ll let you guess if Day Four was planned by me or B…) Firstly, we decided to go to the famous Qingdao Pier. If you look on a bottle of Qingdao beer (available in the UK, dontyaknow) you’ll see as part of their logo they have a blue and white picture of said pier. Being a fan of Qingdao beer before even coming to China, this meant it was kind of a graceland to me…
Here’s day four’s map.
So, the main square in Qingdao is called May 4th square. So, day four was actually the fourth of May! We headed to the square expecting to see…something. But… nothing. 🙁
The not-so-shabby government HQ.
A short bus ride later, and…there it was. My Graceland.
Left: It was REALLY windy out on the pier. B is trying to find shelter. Right: A fisherman doing his thing.
At this point of the holiday I hadn’t seen ANY McDonald’s in Qingdao. I’d seen more Ferraris than McDonalds. However, my eagle eyes spotted this M from miles away.
A touch of car spotting; This was the first convertible I’ve seen in China! Okay, it’s technically a cabriolet…but, it’s still a drop-drop. P.S: Totally think Lexus make the best looking cars lately.
This made me laugh; a bunch of Shells with the Shell logo.
In the same gift shop, these boats were very photogenic.
Almost bought this tank, then realised taking ammunition (including replica) on an aeroplane probably wasn’t the best idea.
Outside, the architecture definitely had some European influence.
Found it, went to it, staff spoke English, saw another foreigner. YaY for McDonalds.
European Style Street. Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Everyone wanted wedding photos with the Cathedral in the background. I can guarantee most of these couples, probably all, aren’t Christian.
Car spotting; a lightly tuned Porsche Boxster. I commend his choice of wheels; Advans.
Car spotting! Astra hatchback! This place really is European street (haven’t seen one of these anywhere else in China.) Now; I know you all want me to solve the mystery that you’re all thinking about. Is this car badged as a Vauxhall (like in England), an Open (like in Europe), a Holden (like in Australia), or a Chevrolet (like in America.) Answer: Opel! You can all sleep east now.
Returned to the same alleyways as the other night. Check out the fake Coca Cola logo.
This is why Canon are the best.
After some awesome navigating from me — finally found it. My second Mecca.
The roof of the Qingdao (Tsingtao) beer factory / museum. Okay, so why is the city called Qingdao but the beer called Tsingtao. Well, it’s because of those pesky Germans. Nowerdays, Pinyin is the standardised way to represent Chinese using the western alphabet. However, back in the day, it wasn’t standardised, and lots of countries and lots of people had different ways of going about it. The Germans called Qingdao Tsingtao, and that remains it’s postal name (and the name of the beer) to this day. Wow, I could be a teacher or something! Oh, wait.
I told B the guy on the left looked like my Uncle Mart. 🙂 Also, this is AAAA stuff!
Passion, Dreams and Success? I thought it was headaches, vomiting and hangovers.
There was lots of packaging, labels, and advertisements in the museum. Being a westerner raised amongst our ‘free’ media, I of course only photographed the controversial stuff that I could stir up a bunch of sensationalism about. 🙂 Oooh, zee Germans!
It’s photography school time! (wow, I really am a teacher.) Today’s subject; Polarising filters. Polarising filters go on the end and, as the name suggests, can filter out certain wavelengths of light depending on it’s polarisation. In laymen’s terms (Amy!) “Turn filter nasty reflections go bye bye.” Left and Right is before / after with the filter. Pretty cool stuff! Although, this is pretty much the only time I’ve ever had to use the filter. I guess that’s justified carrying it around for the past gazillion miles…not.
Worker ID cards.
Lots of varieties of Tsingtao.
Bad photo, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the packaging used for the UK export bottles.
A few different types of beer, from all over the world.
Then, into a bar for some free beer and peanuts.
YaY, go England!
Bottles!
B standing next to my Christmas present for next year ^_^
It’s lesson time again! This subject Image Stabilisation, or “IS.” Many different camera manufacturers give it many different names, and some work in different ways, but usually it involves tiny motors manipulating elements of the lens in order to counter-act any camera movement or vibrations that could cause a blurry image. Blurry images are when it’s too dark, so the camera has to open the shutter for longer to let in more light. However, as Humans we cant hold the camera perfectly still for any length of time, so with these slow shutter speeds come blurry images…or not; if you have IS! Both photos were taken with a shutter speed of 1/6th of a second (0.167 seconds) the image on the left has IS turned off, the image on the right, IS is on. The downside? IS will eat your batteries a little quicker, but it’s definitely worth it. Next time you buy a camera / lens, make sure it has IS!
Another with / without IS demonstration. This time, 1/5th of a second (0.2s)
They also had a “drunk simulator” room, complete with camera inside and TV outside so you could see your friends (in this case, B) going through the room. It was basically a normal room, but with a super wonky floor. It was amazing how much it actually threw you off. Your eyes tell you that your standing up right, but your legs tell you that you’re not! It was quite cool!
We then did a spot of shopping on this street.
On the way back to the hotel, saw these funky buildings.
That concludes day 4. The last day, day 5, coming soon! 🙂
P.S: Amy, I was joking. Love you really. 😛
Layman’s terms = explanation for Amy. May of just made me choke on my cup of tea.
Things I liked/ want :
>The ability to dunk my net into the sea and catch fish.
>My own western style home in the middle of Qingdao
>A Beer bottle bench
>Access to the Tsingtao factory/ drunk simulator
>Any car mentioned.
😀
Sod off the pair of you! I understand more than “Turn filter nasty reflections go bye bye.”
looooosers!
Pah….love you really hahaha
xxx