Waiting & Wandering

The pace of life at QAU has decidedly slowed for Julia and me. After a whirlwind week of getting to know professors and students here, familiarizing ourselves with campus, and taking introductory visits to orchards, we’ve suddenly found ourselves with a lot more time on our hands. The next step in our project is to go out into the countryside and start conducting surveys and focus groups with extension agents and farmers. Planning the logistics of these visits has been left up to the professors we’re collaborating with, as it’s very difficult for foreigners to spend time in the Chinese countryside without an invitation/escort. Our collaborators have been very generous with their time, but a conference on food science and agricultural economics, featuring several South Korean speakers, has delayed working out these logistical plans.

This has meant that Julia and I have felt a little bit cooped up on campus, but it’s also meant that we’ve had some time to sit down and tidy up our research plans (like finalizing the Chinese translations of surveys). Also, I chose this time to pick up a rather nasty cold. This hurt my pride as much as anything, as it spoils my record of not getting sick in general, but especially while traveling. I think Julia had the worst deal though, because she was both anxiously awaiting news from our collaborators and trapped with a cranky layabout WHO WOULD NOT STOP WET COUGHING. Luckily I’m feeling much better now, and if that good fortune continues, we’ll be out visiting orchards again in no time.

We also took advantage of our freer schedule to have a bit of fun. The 2014 International Horticultural Expo (never heard of it before? neither had we) happens to be in Qingdao this year. We imagined that this would be something like an expanded botanical garden, when in reality it was more like a kitschy yet elaborate flower-themed amusement park. The grounds were divided into gardens with names like ‘Children’s Dream Garden’ and ‘Science Garden.’ Most entertaining by far were the ‘International Gardens’, which were an assortment of many small gardens representing different countries, with varying accuracy. Mexico, for example, was mostly giant sombrero sculptures, with a few scattered cacti. Many of these gardens also had a gift shop as their centerpiece.

In addition to the international gardens dedicated to different countries, there was also a garden dedicated to each of China’s provinces. One of the highlights of our visit was finding that the Shandong province garden featured, of course, enormous apples. (All Expo photos courtesy of Julia, as my batteries promptly died upon entering the park.)

If you look closely, there are actually 4 apples in this photo…

The whole expo was certainly a feat of landscaping, if nothing else. There were some beautiful water gardens featuring lotus blooms and lily pads, and a huge amphitheater sheltered by sweeping flowerbeds. (This is difficult to describe; see the picture please.) We spent a solid 5 or 6 hours walking around, and definitely didn’t see the whole thing. However, none of the gardens were what I would describe as traditional Chinese gardens, like those I visited in Suzhou a few years ago (which I highly recommend, if you ever get a chance to visit).

It was easy to get disoriented, so it’s a good thing maps were plentiful

Aw yeah frog topiaries

I joined the wrong marching band

 

Aside from our expo adventure, we’ve also been exploring the culinary options near the university. The cafeterias on campus are decent enough, and reliably cheap (I have to work pretty hard to spend much more than $1 per meal), but do get a little monotonous after awhile. Our best discovery so far is a great hotpot restaurant just outside the university’s south gate.

For those unfamiliar, hotpot  (火锅) is a style of dining where each table has its own vat of boiling broth, and you order plates of raw ingredients to drop into the broth and make delicious soup. For example, we’ve ordered slices of beef and pork (cut paper-thin, so they cook almost immediately), prawns, crab rolls, potato slices, noodles, and many varieties of mushrooms, tofu, and leafy greens for our hotpot concoctions. The results are delicious, and the whole process is a lot of fun.

Mmmmm hotpot

That’s all the updates for now – here’s hoping the next post is more field-based!