Olympic Sailing Site!

Qingdao was actually a really neat city, with strong legacy of being a former German colony; much of the architecture from that period remains, giving the city an oddly European character in some parts (ok, maybe that's a stretch, but it might have a European character if you used your imagination and also squinted your eyes when you looked at everything so you couldn't really see what you were looking at). Everywhere there were Beijing 2008 logos, and TONS of big pictures all over the city of the sailing events. Below, a Beijing 08 logo with a Tornado (the catamaran class at the Olympics).




Qingdao is one of the four major ports of China and also a MAJOR naval base. You could see tons of container ships coming in, as well as a number of naval ships.




Beaches of HUMANS!!!!




And THEN we went to the Olympic site, which was cool to see (although no boats left). I liked that it was open to the public for a very low entry fee so people could enjoy the water and the skyline.







The skyline LOOKS pretty, but don't be fooled; it was actually HIDEOUS and neon and flashing and totally garish at night.