The strangely named No.1 Bathing Beach is about a 1 min walk from the hotel, and is touted as the largest sandy beach in Asia. It was built in 1901 by the Germans after they invaded Qingdao and became a popular playtime spot for foreigners. After China reclaimed the beach, they spiffed it up and it now boasts more than 900 (!!) showers, temporary chalets for rent, restaurants, emergency life-saving gear, and a security system that covers the whole beach. Impressive!

We spent the late-afternoon vegging on the beach, just lounging around enjoying the sun and people watching. It was awwwwesome. After the air got cooler since the sun was going down, we headed to a little food joint also on the beach for some good ‘ol BBQ grub and ice cold beer. The beer of choice? Tsingtao beer, of course! Qingdao is the home of Tsingtao beer, and is served as a draft beer in restaurants. However, since this was a tiny eatery, bottled was all the had. No matter, it was icy cold and sooo good after a hot day out! It’s a weak beer though, I think, as we had 1 bottle (each 1L I think?) each and weren’t the slightest bit tipsy…

Ordering was certainly…. interesting. The menu was all in Chinese which I couldn’t really read, and I didn’t know how to say a lot of the food we wanted in Chinese (I mean, I can say stuff like “fish” and “chicken”, but not “clams” or “oysters” etc!). So basically ordered some random stuff and they also brought me to see all the seafood so I could look and point out what I wanted. I pointed at some clams, which looked super fresh and clean.

Guy: “blah blah blah, or blah blah blah?”, obviously asking how I wanted it cooked.

Me: (in Chinese) “Sorry…. don’t understand!”

This is when it got pretty hilarious. One guy started doing a little dance, trying to show how it was cooked (looked like it was “stir fry”) and the other guy did another little dance for another cooking method (which I didn’t get!). So I pointed at the first guy 😛

AWESOME choice, because it was clams in spicy sauce and it was FABULOUS!!!!!!!!! The clams were the nicest I’ve had in my whole life – so fresh they had no fishy taste whatsoever, and so tender that they weren’t chewy at all. The sauce was so tasty with just the right amount of spice. It was like an explosion of flavour in our mouths.. so good we said “One more plate please!!!!” and moments later, another plate of these ‘lil babies arrived.??

The fried meat on sticks were assorted prawns, lamb, pork and chicken. Very tasty, but these were highly salted so we ended up ordering egg fried rice as well to counteract it (and also fill us up).

Our oysters also blew me away. They were just very simply steamed – no sauce, no nothing. But they were huge, and so so so so tender and soft! No weird chewy bits, no fishy flavour. It was AWESOME. And so plump and clean and fresh.

We were absolutely impressed with this little beachside joint that served up such fresh, incredible food. It’s a shame they don’t exist in Shanghai, we’d be there almost every day!

Lounging about on the beach

Reading whilst soaking in the sun

An early dinner at a beachside eatery

Tsingtao beer, the bottled one though. The draft version (made
right here in Qingdao) is way way way way better!

Lightly roasted peanuts. Great to snack on whilst people-watching on
the beach, and pretty healthy too!

Fantastic spicy clams

BBQ skewers of prawns, pork, lamb, chicken

Fat oysters, these were absolutely amazing

Watching the sunset

A lovely way to end the day!