Late Summer, Early Fall: The Perfect Time for a Family Trip – Qingdao Comes Highly Recommended
After a sweltering summer, the cool autumn finally arrived. Having survived the hot season, I picked a weekend to take my wife and child out for a break. Since we live in Gaomi, the best choice was Qingdao. As a graduate of the University of Petroleum, it was a perfect chance to show my family the campus life of my younger days.
Huangdao is a pretty nice tourist city, less crowded than the downtown area, and just an hour's drive away. So we planned to leave on Saturday and return on Sunday. Our first stop was Xiaozhu Mountain. The scenery there is beautiful, and there's also a wildlife park. My son was super excited, like a little wild pony let loose. The park had a great variety of animals, giving him a vivid lesson far more engaging than the pictures in his textbooks. My wife and I visited the Bodhi Temple, reliving our dating memories — just now with a little tagalong. In the afternoon, we went to Silver Beach. Overall, Silver Beach has more pristine scenery than Golden Beach, and the seawater is cleaner. Unfortunately, it wasn't the right season, so we couldn't take our son into the water. But watching him dig little sand castles was also delightful.
Before departure, I had booked a hotel near the University of Petroleum — as the saying goes, 'provisions before troops.' It was the Blue Horizon Hotel (Qingdao University of Petroleum branch), the same one I stayed at when I first arrived as a student. A star-rated hotel, and the service was excellent. At check-in, we got really lucky: the room type I booked was unavailable, so the front desk upgraded us for free to a sea-view king bed room — thumbs up! Walking into the room, we had a panoramic view of the university campus, and in the distance, Tangdao Bay was visible — absolutely gorgeous. Regrettably, due to pandemic restrictions, the campus was closed. After a day of fun, we were tired, so dinner was at the hotel's Fisherman's Wharf à la carte restaurant. The waiter recommended the seafood pimple soup and Blue Horizon roast duck, which left a deep impression.
Early next morning, we headed to Jimiya Wharf. When traveling, you've got to bring back some seafood, right? The variety was huge and everything was fresh, just unloaded from the boats, and best of all, cheap. The trip was short, but seeing the smiles on my wife and child's faces filled me with contentment. We had to end the journey with our son reluctant to leave — he still had an interest class in the afternoon. Kids have a tough life too! A happy weekend it was!
