Usually, during the Golden Week of the National Holiday (October 1 - 7 or 1 - 8), my family of three goes back to our hometown, Zhengzhou. This year, I had other plans for the Golden Week, so I went back to Zhengzhou before it. Then, we had several days at the beginning of the Golden Week to do something else.

Though everyone knows we'd better stay home during the Golden Week, many people still choose to go out. We can't stay home for a week, right? Where should we go? After some discussion, we decided to visit Qingdao City. It's a beautiful coastal city, just 3.5 hours away by high-speed train. From our experience, there should always be some quiet spots in seaside cities.

We arrived in Qingdao by train at nearly midnight on Oct 2. The next morning, we took the subway to the west end of the Qingdao Greenway by the sea. It was very peaceful here.

Then we walked eastward along the greenway, which is the direction of the city center. There were more and more people along the way. When we reached Zhanqiao Park (the Pier), we saw the large crowd typical of the Golden Week. :-)

We walked around to see more people in the central areas.

Then we decided to go to the less - known Guangxiangshan Park instead of the famous Xinhaoshan Park, which turned out to be a right choice. There were almost no people here!

We walked around the lanes and had a drink in a historical house.

On the morning of October 4, we took the subway to Huangdao District, which is less well - known to tourists. (I just picked it out from the map.) There weren't many visitors either, and we had a very peaceful day there.

At night, we went to May Fourth Square to enjoy the beautiful lights and the Fushan Bay Light Show in the distance. The light show is composed of the illumination of 53 high-rise buildings. Through an intelligent control system, more than 3 million LED light points are precisely synchronized, creating the world's longest coastal curved light and film screen. It offers a unique viewing experience of "using the sea as the stage, the sky as the curtain, and the city as the scenery."

Of course we ate a lot in Qingdao. It's great to enjoy different foods in different cities in China.

Sadly, on the morning of October 5, I had to return to Beijing. Next time, I will come on a non-holiday day to explore the other highlights of Qingdao!

Yours Truly

Angie Guo - Charmission Travel