October 16-Liugong Island

Today, Maren, Kelli and I went to Liugong Island. It’s an island right off the coast of Weihai. We took the 30 bus downtown and walked to the port. The only place we could find to buy ferry tickets was a tourism business, and we got a ferry ride to and from the island, and entrance into all the sites. The ferry was a large speed boat, and we stood outside by the railings for a better view of the island and the Yellow Sea.

Among the other tourists was a group of Caucasians, some of them American, the others British. They teach in Weihai; we were thrilled to know we aren’t the only Caucasians living in Weihai.

The day was chilly so we brought jackets; plus, all of us have colds, which doesn’t make anything easier. Liugong has a lot of history to it: in the late 1800s, the Japanese invaded Weihai and the Sino-Japanese war began. The Chinese eventually lost the war in a humiliating defeat, simply because the Japanese were more advanced than they were. It taught the Chinese that they needed to quicken their progression into modern society in order to have a better chance at surviving.

In the 1900s, the English came in and took over Weihai, calling it Weihaiwei. This is the reason Weihai has a slight British influence and why many of the old buildings are colonial in style. Weihaiwei became an important seaport and tourism hot spot.

The island has many colonial-style buildings and seaports. We toured a Buddhist temple, which was small but was probably my favorite that I’ve seen, mostly because it was rural. It was surrounded by trees and the ocean, not skyscrapers and angry bus drivers like the temples in Shanghai or Beijing. The Liugong temple felt the most “sacred” in a way, like you really were stepping out of the world and into a place of serenity.

Although there were several other tour groups on the island, it was not a very busy day and once our tour guide let us wander alone (she only spoke Chinese so we weren’t understanding anything anyway) my girls and I felt like we were “alone” for the first time while being in China, like we weren’t bombarded with dozens of random people.

We saw a whale museum, with life-size replicas of whales and bottles filled with whale eyes and kidneys. We saw beautiful koi ponds and gazebos. We wandered through the Sino-Japanese war museum, which was incredible. There were life-size simulations of the battles and awe-inspiring artwork; this museum rivaled those in the big cities, right here in our little Weihai! There was also a British influence museum, with displays from the British occupation of Weihai, and, again, life-size simulations and models of life during this period of time.

There was a panda exhibit, where we saw two real pandas. They were adorable, big, fluffy, and rather boring as they sat there and chewed on bamboo. I was thrilled—real pandas in CHINA! The souvenir store had shelves and shelves of stuffed panda toys and paraphernalia. Pandas are so cute.

We saw Taiwanese deer. Pretty exciting, also.

There was this seemingly never-ending staircase that we climbed that led to a nature path, which we explored. This path led us up the mountain and offered the most amazing views of Weihai and the Yellow Sea. We found this abandoned outlook with an old canon and we took a photo shoot, because we’re girls and we do that. The sun was setting and, oh my goodness, the view was breathtaking; absolutely gorgeous. The sun broke through the clouds and flooded the valley with golden light, which the Yellow Sea reflected back into the sky and onto the city. We sat there for a good half hour or more, just enjoying ourselves. We were utterly alone: there were no horns, yelling people, noisy children, no obnoxious pop music, no street vendors—only the sound of the wind rustling through the trees and our breathing. I was probably at my most serene since I’d been in China; this was the first place we’d been that has been that quiet. It was incredible, and we basked in the light of the sun and glory of it all.

Behind this outlook, the path continued and we hiked through the woods. I’ve wanted to go hiking ever since we moved to Colorado, and this was just what I needed. It reminded me of Crystal Lakes in Colorado. We found an old headstone, which was somewhat creepy, lots of spider webs, a hive of bees, wildflowers, and peace. After a while, we were exhausted, hungry, and cold, and though we didn’t want to leave, it was getting dark and we knew leaving was a necessity. So we caught a ferry back to Weihai and bought my favorite Chinese food: fried chicken on a skewer, dipped in some delicious hot sauce that makes me want to cry it’s so tasty. This was the icing on the cake—today was an amazing day and I’m glad we decided to explore Liugong before it gets too cold.