I visited Qingdao, a city in north-east China, for a few days. I had heard it is a nice place, though I also heard from one person that it is a dump. I am considering studying there next term and had a good impression,

There are many beaches in Qingdao, as it is along the coast.

It was about 40 degrees, but still guys jogging in bikinis.

A nice sculpture on the beach.

Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

Pick-up on the campus basketball courts - girls only.

Dorm row.

There was one nice street after another. A hundred years ago Germany colonized Qingdao -- the influence is clear. I noticed that the nicest parts of every Chinese city are those with European influence.

A tree-lined street in the German area of town.

A park in the German area of town. Streets such as that above and parks such as this one are not things you should expect to see on your next visit to China - unless you come to Qingdao.

A view of a street from a castle-like house that was once built and occupied by some German government official - he was fired after his superior in Germany got the bill because the place was so extravagant and expensive.

A nice old street.

A street in a not-so-nice part of town.

The neighborhood by China Ocean University's old campus had a lot of picturesque streets.

I find most Chinese cities lively at night, compared to American cities at least. A lot of people are out late and many people live downtown - it doesn't seem like China has suburbs.

Blinding traffic at night too.

Neat picture of the sun and the ocean.

A couple of sunset shots. I don't know if I was lucky, or if many nights in Qingdao have such beautiful sunsets.

There he goes, just a-walkin' down the street, singing ... oh my god, that is Chairman Mao! Marsha thought the same thing when she saw this picture. Actually, it's not rare to see someone that looks like this, but this was a good photo-op.

Some foods. Candy-coated fruit was sold all over the place.

Different flavors of popcorn - strawberry, honey-melon (that's right, it's not honey-dew), chocolate and plain sugar-coated are in this picture. My favorite was one that was the same color as the chocolate but with a different taste. I am salivating thinking about it.

A common site in Chinese cities - McDonalds and KFC, sometimes together. Many Chinese think this is regular American food. I don't know whether that is accurate or not. Would you say so?

I can't tell if the woman in this ad is Britney or if she's a Chinese Britney look-alike.

I checked out an aquarium, and little did I know they had the world's biggest "Single Acrylic Exhibit Water Column."

Why I found this animal's name funny may or may not be self-explanatory.