ByGD
I love the street art I find wherever I travel in the world. But these Qingdao apartment buildings completely covered in cute artwork are some of my favorites. Partly it’s because they’re so cute, and it’s fun to imagine coming home to such cheery pictures every day. But these Qingdao apartments are also such a contrast with the housing developments of identical faceless high rise apartment towers that stretch for literally miles on the outskirts of Chinese cities.
ByGD
I love street art wherever I find it. Qingdao had lots of it. This painting was actually on the grounds of our hotel, The Castle, as you can see from the bus stop painted into the picture. The sort of European-looking girl has a bunch of suitcases. The painted title is “Finally Home.”
It’s a little weird for a hotel to have a home-themed artwork in its gardens, even though the “home away from home” thing is pretty overdone. But after a nearly 24-hour travel day getting from Seattle to Qingdao, we certainly felt like we had finally reached home when we opened the door to our room somewhere around midnight local time. And while we were in Qingdao, we certainly were comfortable in our home base.
I know it’s just advertising. But the almost Ghibli-like naivety of this picture does capture how I feel about the Castle. Only some of us have lived there, but for my family, Qingdao is our home in China. And the Castle is our home in Qingdao.
Today I am leaving for a similar trip with my younger daughter. I hope we find ourselves as cozy and welcome somewhere in Norway when we finally reach our beds tomorrow tonight.
ByGD
These party girls seem to be painted on the side of an apartment building in Qingdao. But one wonders what’s for sale in the unit by her elbow. Is this Chinese graffiti advertising a secret nightclub in that building?
ByGD
China is better known for sprawling developments of faceless apartment towers, and for good reason: there are miles of them in every city. But Qingdao also has some of the best street art of any city I’ve ever visited, possibly including Reykjavik, and many of the best murals are on apartment buildings.
Qingdao is in Shandong province, which the wonderful book Oracle Bones informs me is where the titular oracle bones were found. Those carved bones are the earliest evidence of writing in the world. Shandong province was also the birthplace of Confucius, whose writings are a pillar of Chinese scholarship. So it’s not surprising that even their street art has a literary bent.
{By the way, a recent Google “On this day” alert sent me down a rabbit hole of neglected photos from the 2015 homeland trip I took with my then 10-year-old daughter. You can expect to see pictures of China in this Sunday 1000 Words space for a long time to come.}