Where In The World Is Evan?

What can I say… another belated entry backdated so the blog maintains it’s chronology.

After Tai’an I took an eight hour train, on a standing ticket, across Shandong province to the idyllic port city of Qingdao—famous for it’s German brewery, built when the city was a German concession.

Interesting architecture, fresh sea breeze, nice beaches, good seafood, and the best beer in China… what more could you ask for in a holiday destination?

When you can buy pints of brewery fresh, icy-cold beer on the beach for 4 kuai (AU$0.66) it’s no wonder that I had a nap and woke an hour later with terrible sunburn across my torso and upper arms

Thankfully my hotel room had super efficient air-con, so I spent my last couple of days lying naked, flat on my back, rubbing moisturiser into my body, and smoking pot and popping aspirin to deal with the pain.

Check out the Qingdao photo gallery.

Either I’m in much better physical shape than I thought–and visual observation might suggest–or the staff writers for Lonely Planet are fat, lazy slobs. What was pitched as a “minimum 8 hour return climb”, that “necessitates” a stay at an expensive hotel 2 hours from the top, turned out to be something quite different.

Planning to climb at night seemed like a brilliant move to avoid the crippling summer heat. Whilst it did achieved this aim, it did nothing for the intense humidity. After one hour of climbing by moonlight (I managed the whole climb without using my torch) I found myself sweating so badly that I was forced to climb bare-chested (for a man this is quite acceptable in China, surprisingly).
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I guess it’s about time I made an update for those of you who are still interested in my activities and whereabouts here in China.

At the end of June I finished my teaching contract in the city of Chengdu, and am now on two months of unpaid summer holidays. I’ve spent most of the last two weeks lounging about Chengdu, partying frequently, and saying goodbye to a time and place in my life where I was truly happy.

Presently I am in the city of Tai’an, in Shandong province, at the foot of Tai Shan–the holiest Taoist mountain in China–about to prepare for my solo night-time ascent of the mountain. On a clear day (which I’m not expecting) you can see over 200 km away, as the sun rises from the ocean!
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Last night was my goodbye party–to say farewell to my friends, and to the great city of Chengdu.

Around 8:00 pm Sergio and I headed down to “In Joy’s Bar”, a Chinese run Western style bar–the owner’s English name is Joy, and no doubt she’s quite pleased with herself for making such a bad pun. Starting off with a bottle of vodka we settled in for the evening as the latecomers trickled in throughout the night.

After finishing off the forth bottle of vodka, between about six of us, it seemed a natural progression to go dancing. In a delightful stroke of luck, Romain–Chloe’s boyfriend who had just arrived from France–discovered that he’d inadvertently smuggled six pills of e into China. He’d lost them a couple of weeks earlier in a small niche at the bottom of his bum-bag.
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As all good things must come to an end, very good things must come to an end sooner.

This morning Dong Dong and I said goodbye, as she returned to her home in Xinjiang province, about 40 hours away by train. Being the child of wealthy Han Chinese settlers her parents send her to Chengdu to study at university–Sichuan universities being considered superior to those in Xinjiang. Whilst the time we had together was brief, and we both knew this parting was imminent, it’s still quite sad to see her go. The language and cultural barriers between us meant that it was often hard to accurately convey our feelings, but nonetheless she was a constant delight to spend time with, and never ceased to make me laugh.
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Undoubtedly, one of the nicest effects of ecstasy is the incredibly heightened enjoyment of music.

As I discovered yesterday, however, this effect is not infallible.

After being dragged to KTV (Chinese karaoke) with Cathy, and in turn dragging Sergio along with me, I discovered that ecstasy does nothing for what is unreservedly a tragic musical experience.

Needless to say, I owe Sergio a big favor, and personally resolve to never again go to KTV–such a pointless waste of otherwise good drugs