We got up at 5am for a 6am departure to the airport. Mr Jing transferred us.

At check-in to China Eastern flight MU2005, we hit a snag as Rhys’ name was incorrectly spelt (Ryhs instead of Rhys). They would not allow Rhys on the flight and we had to try and get him another ticket. Initially it was for a later flight departing Chengdu @ 3pm as ‘there were no more seats on our earlier flight’. Ticket cost was 2050RMB / $410AUD. After flushing out all the RMBs we had left (would not accept visa/mastercard) and information lost in translation, Rhys was hurried to another counter then we were told that he was on our flight and that we needed to hurry through to the boarding gate. With not much time to spare, we made it onto MU2005 together… what a huge relief !!! The next lovely surprise for Mum was that Dad had upgraded her seat and Mum was flying this leg on Business Class – woo hoo!!

Mum’s Business Class seat had table cloth trimmings and a somewhat ‘posh’ breakfast of congee, dumplings, buns, vegetable salad and fruit salad.

On arrival we caught the airport bus 702 to Zhongshan Road (50 minute trip) where Julian (our AirBnB host) me us. Julian kindly drove us to our accommodation.

We soon went to explore the area nearby, the seafood shops on the wharf, we also saw many fishing boats and submarines in the harbour … but boy oh boy, it was sooooooo cold,  apparently 0 degrees in Qingdao!!! We went ‘home’ to put on more layers then ventured out again for a late lunch at a nearby restaurant, then walked back to Zhongshan Road where we looked around the shops (Rhys went AWOL and Dad and Owen went looking for him in a department store), withdrew some cash from the ATM, went down a neat foodie stall alley, then eventually to a seafood restaurant for dinner. It was a chilly evening, sooooo cold, sooooo cold!