Beachcombing! Feeling the Sea! 2022 Qingdao Summer Road Trip
After the 2022 Spring Festival, the COVID situation in Beijing turned into a running drama that only seemed to get worse. In the blink of an eye, five months had passed. In these six months, the pandemic was relentless and showed no sign of letting up. Traveling was out of the question, and even getting the kid to school became a problem. As summer vacation arrived on schedule, school resumption still seemed far off. If we kept waiting, we’d be singing Jacky Cheung’s ‘Autumn Melancholy’ as we sent Qi Xiaobao off to elementary school. Once Qi Xiaobao becomes a primary school student, the days of spontaneously hitting the road with Mom and Dad would be gone forever! So this summer vacation wasn’t just crucial for Qi Xiaobao, but also for Qi Dad and Qi Mom.
Humming Xu Wei’s line, ‘Nothing can stop my longing for freedom...’ we made a tough decision: ‘Let’s go!’ ‘Where to?’ ‘It doesn’t matter—wherever we can go!’ We checked the State Council’s mini-program for pandemic policies, and Qingdao, which was traveler-friendly, caught our eye. So, Qingdao became our first stop.
Date: June 26th. Place: Huangdao, Qingdao. To save a few bucks while still keeping some quality, we bypassed the downtown crowds and chose the Hilton Hotel in Huangdao. By a happy accident, this led to a tidal flat beachcombing adventure that Qi Xiaobao became deeply obsessed with.
This tidal flat across from the Starlight Island Resort was where Qi Xiaobao would spend several hours every day during our four-day stay.
This tidal flat maintained rich biodiversity. As the tide receded, it became a playground for tiny creatures.
Ghost crabs scuttled everywhere, ready to burrow into the sand at any moment. Qi Xiaobao picked up a new skill: whenever he spotted a small hole in the sand, he’d dig down a few inches and always manage to unearth a crab.
Barnacles clung to the rocks like budding roses waiting to bloom.
There were also live little oysters. Qi Dad already planned to bring a portable grill next time, so he could harvest and barbecue them on the spot for an oyster feast—truly a gift from the sea.
Qi Xiaobao’s favorite thing was carrying his little bucket and wandering along the tidal flat, searching for tiny crabs.
Today was a day of abundance. All sorts of crabs and lobsters, big and small, filled the bucket—many of them medium-sized.
After a heavy rain, a lot of green seaweed washed ashore. It’s said that Ulva only grows in waters with gentle waves. Qingdao is located in the Yellow Sea, which lies between the Jiaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula, connected to the Bohai Sea to the north, making it an inland sea. No wonder Qingdao suffers from Ulva blooms. When Ulva proliferates on a large scale, its dense coverage can spell disaster for marine life. That’s why you often see workboats harvesting Ulva. It seems the beauty of Qingdao’s waters is all thanks to the hard work of ocean conservationists.
This beach is still pretty good for taking photos.
The sunset glow painted Huangdao’s sky red, and in the mist, the city looked just like a mirage floating in the air. In the evening or morning, the scenic trail around Starlight Island is definitely a great place for a stroll—a full loop is close to six kilometers.
After the rain, Huangdao looked especially fresh. We bid farewell to Huangdao and moved on to downtown Qingdao.
Qingdao’s May Fourth Square is named in commemoration of the May Fourth Movement. The stirring May Fourth Movement of that year was sparked by the dispute over the ownership of the Jiaodong Peninsula after World War I. From then on, sparks ignited across China, and the iron tide of history swept away all obstacles, ushering in a new era. Having watched the TV series ‘The Awakening Age,’ walking in May Fourth Square and watching the traffic flow along the coastal road, I felt even deeper respect for that magnificent chapter of history.
Eight days in Qingdao slipped by unnoticed, and Qi Xiaobao still hadn’t had his fill. The only regret was that shortly after we left Huangdao, news of a COVID outbreak came. The bad news was that a few positive cases were confirmed. The good news was that all confirmed cases were cold-chain logistics workers under closed-loop management.
