A day of...Culture?

Today was one of those rare days where we did more than sit in class for four hours, study for a few more hours, eat mediocre Chinese food and go to bed. Today we ate dog.


Sorry Cosmo.


When I asked one of my Chinese friends where a dog restaurant was, he said he knew one that was pretty good. Good? The restaurant was called 狗肉饭馆, which translates literally to Dog Meat Restaurant.


It may come as a shock to some, but dog meat is really tasty. It's a lot like roast beef, except it's gamier and more tender. We ate it in a hot pot with vegetables, fried rice and various pickled side dishes. I liked it a lot; so did my roommate Eugene.

After the dog restaurant, we headed to the fishing village on the far end of Qingdao. It was disgusting. I always hear Chinese people make this excuse for why they shouldn't have to follow all the rules (concerning pollution, human rights, etc): "We're not developed yet." Until recently, I've only seen places in China like Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Qingdao. Sure, I've also visited some farms and some really poor cities in Henan Province, but the Mississippi Delta is just as bad as some of those Chinese cities.


I was shocked today, though, when I realized that Qingdao has a place like this. In my mind, I think Qingdao is China's version of Boston - it's a temperate coastal city famous for its seafood and noted for its relatively prosperous economy. But Boston doesn't have a district where I can't breathe and where the ground is littered with rotting garbage and seafood. The tide water in the "canal" beside the road was even worse; it was black and full of mud and dead fish. I guess China's not lying when they say they're developing.



The people in this village (and in all of China's less-developed/underdeveloped areas live really difficult lives. It's weird knowing 30 minutes away, people are driving Mercedes and Bentleys and BMWs, but here, people are "rich" if they have a motor on their fishing boats - or if they have a boat at all, for that matter.



Even if I could put the smell of this place on my blog, I wouldn't. I don't think most of you would be able to handle it. Even Eugene thought it was disgusting, and I think after our 30 minute visit, we were all ready to go.

Tomorrow, however, we're going to spend the night at a fishing village with our roommates. Fun? Probably not.

I'll be back Friday night around 7, and I'm sure there will be some interesting stories and pictures to share.

Until then,

Matthew