Laoshan Travel

I arrived at Qingdao Liuting Airport at about 17:00 o’clock from Hangzhou. As soon as I got out of the plane, I took a deep breath, feeling so clean. My guide Nancy picked up me from the airport to the Shangri-La Hotel located at the business center directly. It just took us about 40 minutes from the airport to the hotel. Nancy left after I checked in. The rest day is on my own as scheduled.

After the dinner at the hotel, I decided to go to the seaside to take a walk. I felt it was totally different that visiting the West Lake and visiting the sea in Qingdao, although they are all about water. In my opinion, the West Lake is like a emerald in a green velvet. It is large, but with borders. Thus, it is bordered beauty with much human elements. Enjoying the pavilions and green willows is actually enjoying its elegance and charming. While enjoy the sea is to enjoy its great vitality. Standing by the sea, what you see is the roaring waves and the distant horizon. The waves thunder upon the shore, creating a sight that can only strike awe in the beholder.

On the next morning, Nancy picked up me from the hotel to visit Laoshan Mountain at about 09:00 o’clock. Our car ran along the southeast coastal line of the island city, which was a beautiful line with the misty sea on one side and villa-cluster of different styles on the other side. In Qingdao, the villas are called sea-view houses which are owned to many well-known people. As a guide in northern China, Nancy, a plumpish girl, has a large, resonant voice with clear and accurate enunciation. She is a professional guide and has told many stories about Qingdao, Laoshan and the Sea. I like her smile and pure-heartedness, especially her particular generosity and energy.

After about one hour, we got to the foot of Laoshan. Just as Nancy told me on the car, Laoshan is indeed the ‘First Mountain on the Sea’. It is a mountain, surrounded by sea on three sides. Seen from far away, it is connected with the sea, and the harmony of sea and sky makes a beautiful picture. The mist above the sea is variable along with the sunshine. On the mountain are full of picturesque rocks, deep gullies and high cliffs. When climbing the mountain, we chosen the way called ‘Stepping on Lotus Up’, since there is a total of 108 lotus areas from the bottom to the Huanyan Temple on the top. Among them, 107 are various lotus sculptures interspersed along the way, and the last lotus is in a Hall of Huayan Temple. The 108 lotus are different from each other, some of which are just a simple lotus flower, some are flowers with leaves.

After Huayan Temple, Nancy took me to visit the Taiqing Palace which is said to be a Taoist temple. However, I felt it is actually a botanical garden personally, since what impressed me is the ancient high trees in the courtyard rather than the Taoist culture. Coming out of Taiqing Palace, our one day tour in Laoshan was over. My three days Qingdao Tour was also almost over.