Conference day today.. it was filled with presentations and more presentations. I nominated myself to be the first, which I later patted myself on the back for – best to get your presentation out of the way early-on when everyone is still alert and paying attention! The conference room was really strange. It looked more like a restaurant banquet private room than a meeting room! A circular table with a lazy-susan in the middle, and the Chinese-style padded restaurant chairs. Nevertheless, it was really nice and comfortable inside, so we were happy.

Lunch was a short break in a room downstairs, where the hotel served us a storm of dishes – way way way more than we could finish. It was only until dinnertime when we could really let loose, since all the presentations were over. Last night, I’d spotted a revolving restaurant way up high in a hotel, and pointed it out. And today, our lovely guide went over to check it out, gave it the thumbs up, and booked us in there for dinner. It was a great idea, because it meant we could take in the gorgeous views of Qingdao at sunset. So so pretty!

The buffet itself was extensive, and not bad, but not amazing either. I guess pricey revolving restaurants serving buffets generally are better at ambience than the food 😉 There was a nice selection, but they replenished really slowly (even when I snarkily told them it was NOT acceptable not to replenish asap when people had paid for a buffet). Doesn’t matter though, because we sat there for 2.5hours and I ATE MY WEIGHT IN FOOD. Made sure we got our money’s worth, hehe. Loved the deep fried oysters and scallops-in-shell. The lamb chops and sausages were fab too. And I loved their taro ice cream and 11230483 different dessert cakes/tarts!

The cool thing was that the restaurant serves free-flow of fresh Tsingtao beer, which originates and is made right here in Qingdao. We all loved it and chugged down icy cold beer with our food. A fabulous way to have dinner with the team, though I think I must stay away from buffets in future…. I’m thinking I’m kinda unstoppable around them…..

Looking out the window from our conference room

Our lunch banquet

Round #1 of 3 😛

Downstairs outside the dinner restaurant

And then it was up to the top floor!

Gorgeous view of Qingdao

Buffet spread – the mains

More food

Just one side of the desserts

BBQ lamb chops, chicken wings, sausages and bacon!

We watched the sun set over Qingdao

Just before we started ploughing our way through the buffet 😉