Qingdao is a city on the bay about 9 hours by 'slow train' east of Beijing. We stopped there on the way back from Shanghai and were thinking a little beach town in China would be nice. Of course we didn't expect Australian Beaches, but thought it would be nice to see some water. We arrived and it was downpouring and flooding. Not a good start. We had to stay at a different hotel, all the hostels were booked and I don't think we've ever stayed in such a shity hotel before. Thing were old, but clean thankfully and it was just for one night until we moved to our hostel the following day. Again we had a hard time getting tickets back to Beijing and spent a lot of time tracking some tickets down and people kept telling us nothing was available for 10 days. We were quite nervous as our flight from Beijing back to Tokyo was in 7. The 2nd day cleared up and was beautiful, we spent time walking along the beach and promenade which was nice. This city has German/European influences as some settled there years ago and the architecture displays this. There is great distinction between the old town and the new town, where the new town has been flooded with tall buildings, shopping malls and apartment complexes. Many new as they will be the host for the sailing events for the Olympics. We really didn't spend much time there as that night we got tickets for the next day back to Beijing. It was a very interesting ride for 9 hours. They were the only seats available, hard seats and imagine a lightly covered plank of plywood, that's how hard they were. The seats had 3 facing 3 other seats, so things got pretty cozy with our Chinese seatmates. They also had let many people on who didn't have tickets to lay and sit in the aisles and between the carriages. It was a crazy crowded train which made trying to get to the bathroom almost impossible. Speaking of the toilets, the Toilets everywhere in China were disgusting, the ones on the trains were among the worst after 9 hours of traveling!