The first thing we did today was to go to Hac Sa Beach 黑沙灘 in Taipa, which is also known as Black Sand Beach. Black Sand Beach is one of the most beautiful scenic areas of Macau. We walked along the coast for a while in the scenic areas, and eventually passed some neighborhoods with very expensive homes. At lunch, we learned that the famous Macau egg tart was first created in the 1990 by a foreigner. I had a very delicious egg mayonnaise sandwich for lunch . Then, my friend and I saw a few temples, and other interesting historical parts of Macau within Taipa. After some time, eventually we decided to visit some casinos in the northern part of Macau. The first casino we went to, which according to a local was the first casino in Macau, was the Casino Lisboa. After that, we went to the Grand Lisboa which we thought was awesome! I taught my friend about Baccarat in one of the casinos. Eventually, we wandered around more casinos, and gambled a little bit. We went to the Diamond Casino where my friend won 100 HKD on a baccarat table. After we were too tired, we went back to Taipa to go to bed, and called it a night.

30 January 2014 (nighttime) – 31 January 2014 (very early morning)

My friend and I left Qingdao airport on 30 January 2014 around 10 p.m. due to a more than two hour delay of our flight. We arrived in Shenzhen around 1:15 a.m. on 31 January 2014, which happened to be Chinese New Year. Our Couchsurfing host was so gracious as to wait up until 3 a.m. for us to get to his apartment from the airport.

31 January 2014 (daytime)

Today was quite an adventure. My travel buddy and I travelled around Shenzhen with our host for much of the day. We initially wanted to find something to eat for lunch, but since nearly every restaurant in our host’s area was closed, because it was Chinese New Year, he decided to take us to Laojie 老街a famous place in Shenzhen with many places to eat. We ended up going to a very nice restaurant, and where there were tea masters who served us tea. I experienced my first time drinking Chrysanthemum tea there. After this, we hung out at various places in the Laojie area. We ended up walking through an amusement park, and many other places. We greatly enjoyed talking with our host for hours on end. Upon going back to our host’s apartment, we make a stop at Window of the World, and although it was quite dark, it was quite nice to walk around that area.

01 February 2014

Today was also an adventure. My travel buddy and I planned on getting a bus or train ticket to Macau via Zhuhai for the next day. We ended up finally going to a travel agency after 3:30 p.m. Using Baidu maps was an adventure, especially since it didn’t always update our location properly, which was probably due to a slow mobile data connection, but we were finally able to find the travel agency. Long story short, the travel agency representative told us that there is apparently no train from Shenzhen to Zhuhai, only buses and a boat. For one reason or another, we decided we would take a boat to Macau. So, we travelled all the way to Shekou Ferry Terminal, and ended up buying the cheapest boat tickets to Macau for the next day at 1:30 p.m. which were 200 RMB per person. After this, we went shopping at a Walmart in Shenzhen, and eventually went back to our host’s apartment.

02 February 2014

Today, my only goal was to arrive in Macau. My travel buddy and I woke up around 9 a.m., and we planned to get to the Shekou ferry terminal by 12:30 p.m. because our boat tickets were for 1:30 p.m. We finally left our host’s apartment around 10:30 a.m., and had a quick breakfast. Getting to the ferry terminal was easy, and we very easily made it to the port terminal by 12:30 p.m. We eventually boarded the boat, and had a good ride to Macau. Upon arriving in Macau, we went to the Galaxy Macau in order to meet our next Couchsurfing host. Our next Couchsurfing host was quite a gentleman, and he took us to his place. We ended up talking for hours together, and concluded the day with my friend and I going to a casino to watch other people gamble, and had a good dinner at a Japanese style restaurant called Curry Monster. As a side note, I find it quite interesting that all of the casinos in Macau only accept Hong Kong Dollars, a foreign currency, not the local Macau Pataca currency.

I was in Qingdao from 27 January 2014 to 30 January 2013. I have visited Qingdao many times before, so didn’t feel the need to see many new  places. One of the highlights of my trip was going to the Qingdao Beer Museum 青岛啤酒博物馆. I think that that museum is quite fantastic!!! They take you through the history of the company Tsingtao Beer, and how to make beer. You get to drink 2 Tsingtao beers while going around the museum. I thought it was also nice going to the pearl market in Qingdao, and going to a sort of Koreatown in Qingdao.

One of my favorite sayings that I learned from the museum is, “好心有好报” which they translated as “Good will brings good returns.” Overall, I would say that Qingdao is a great place to visit, with many beautiful and interesting things to see in the city. Qingdao is definitely one of my favorite cities in China.

I am now travelling around Greater China for about 1 month. This is my first blog post for this travel blog. I hope this blog will help show how travelling within China is really like. I want this to be an exciting blog for all to read.