Liútíng[流亭] International Airport, which was located at the bottom of the stratus, has similar atmosphere to Gimpo Airport, S.Korea. However, Qingdao people's unique and unpretentious mood was fresh. When I lost my iPhone just after I arrived, the people did their best to help find it.
The landscape to the city from the airport was disordered like desert. As soon as I saw the vast mudflats and huge bridges, I realized that I was indeed on the continent. They wanted to answer travelers' questions on the bus, and that kindness was also refreshing & impressive. The street scenery was like a unscrupulous makeup or unpainted face of Qingdao’s woman.
As soon as I got to Zhongshan Road, an old town, I saw a magnificent view of St. Michael's Cathedral on the hill. From there, the slope to the seashore was the old Kiautschou, or Qingdao German architectural group. The street was almost like Germany except for the Chinese sign.
Kaiser Wilhelm II was suffered from a neurasthenia due to obsessive ambition and inferiority to possess an ocean navy that matched the British Empire. Due to the emperor's heartburnings, the German Imperial Naval Office explored the Far East twice & finally found a port and a coal storage base. The main candidate was Jiaozhou Bay, now Qingdao.
At last two German missionaries were killed. Admiral Otto von Diederichs landed 600 Imperial Marines as they waited and occupied Jiaozhou Bay. Germany made a deal to borrow the Kiautschou from the Qing Dynasty for 99 years from 1898.
Germany has settled down quickly & built the governor's office, the court, the naval office, the kontor, the hotel, the prison, the marine club, the residence, and the train station. Between these two or three blocks, They made small faces with brown roofs, made several angles, stacked tiles and built little Germany. Kaiser would have known that he could manage Kiautschou forever, not for 99 years.
The obtain of Kiautschou was thanks to St. Michael who had killed two missionaries. Kaiser and the German Imperial Naval Office have dedicated to an insidious temple to that. And in Jiaozhou Bay, the little Germany was nurtured in the slope.
The cathedral is in the square, like Markplatz somewhere in Germany. On a cloudy day, the sea breeze was enlivened by young people taking wedding pictures, sightseeing, or watching portraits. I was able to get a sense of where Jiaozhou Bay was when I felt the wet sea breeze.
But the landscapes were not suffering or romantic. The humiliating modernity of Qingdao has long been assimilated and melted in this continent has always been. The delight of young photographers and the distraction of a group of tourists seemed to have melted into everything without being able to get wet.
German architectural objects were concealed by The Kaiser's rhetoric, St. Michael' s blessing, lustfulness and orderliness. Qingdao was not cluttered. Just as all the taxis in Qingdao are Volkswagen, Qingdao just was not particular about simple things.
