Qingdao, Shandong Province 山东青岛
Following the winter in Crested Butte I moved to Qingdao city 青岛市, located in Shandong province, People's Republic of China 中国山东省. I taught middle school and high school English language classes at a Korean international school. On the east coast, Qingdao is directly across the peninsula from South Korea, so proportionately there is a large Korean population. Qingdao is a growing city known for its beer (thanks 1950's German occupation), modern environment, and clean(ish) air. I lived just outside city center in a suburb called Chengyang 成阳. Qingdao was earlier voted #1 most livable city in China.
I didn't spend a lot of time downtown, but during a walk in a city park I took a snapshot of the skyline. Upon arrival I could never tell if I was seeing smog or clouds. It's about 50/50.
Sunrise from my apartment. I have a lot of memories of the sunrises. I would typically wake up at 5 because it was very quiet and the air was fresh and smelled good. There was about a two month period when I was able to see the sunrise from my apartment directly. Colder seasons would push the sun to the right, shortening the days. During the middle of summer, the sun would be further left, behind my building. It is a common architectural practice (at least in Asia) to have the main living room windows facing south to maximize sunlight exposure.
Sunset in my apartment complex. I would only have a few weeks of the year to see the sun drop in between those buildings. Most of my private clients were in this apartment complex as well as a start-up Chinese beginner school I helped with (located to the bottom right of this picture).
I had these awesome flower boxes custom built for my "patio". More often than not the flowers died, but I had fun with it.
Look at that sunlight coming in! By my attire, I'm guessing this was weekend-morning-chill-time.
Buildings everywhere. This was taken from the roof of my building during summer. Probably close to 5 in the morning.
Summer sunset from the roof of my building.
A goat inexplicably tied to a tree.
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