On our way to the brewery..

...Leslie & I stumbled on what has to be the most ridiculous looking thing in Qingdao: Atrium City (aka Tianmu City).

Hailed on Qingdao's tourism website as "a cool indoor city with replicas of various famous and historic locations around the globe," Atrium City seemed to be designed in hopes of becoming a dining destination for Qingdao residents. However, it seemed like they better succeed in creating a bad hybrid of Disneyland and Las Vegas rolled into one. While the entire thing is very amusing, Leslie & I felt that the space was just trying too hard to be something it's not. Not to mention that the entire space is incredibly over the top.

Dear China, here's a lesson for you: less is definitely more. Something for you to chew on.

Christmas in China

If you quickly Google "Christmas in China," most likely you'll be greeted with link after link saying something along the lines of the number of people referring to themselves as Christian in China is growing and Christmas is a becoming increasingly more popular, particularly with the younger generation and those living in the cities...blah, blah, blah.

Though this isn't completely false, there can be a religious aspect to Christmas celebrations and Christmas is indeed only mainly celebrated by the younger generations living the cities, Christmas here is basically Valentine's Day in December.

Typically, in China on Christmas, the pressure is on the male counterpart of a relationship to demonstrate his affection for his female counterpart through gifts and a special date of some sort. Pretty different from American Christmas traditions, right?

(Side note: LGBT acceptance, at least from what I've seen, still seems dicey in China). 

Now, for the most part, I at least try to keep an open mind about other people's traditions that differ from my own, but I have to admit that if this Christmas-as-Valentine's-Day tradition is not one that I care for very much (and no, it's not because I'm bitter and single either).

To me, China's version of the holiday reeks of consumerism. For all the slack Christmas gets in the United States about over-commercialization and consumerism, I have to say China's version of Christmas seems at least 10 times more guilty than the American version of the holiday.

At least at the end of the day in the United States, when all the shopping and present opening is said and done, Christmas really is about gathering with those you care about to for the sake of being together and being grateful to have one another. Or at least, that's what I've always felt like Christmas meant to me. But to each their own, I guess.

As for me, this Saturday, I will be going out and hitting all the shopping hot spots in hopes of observing Chinese people celebrating Christmas (in a non-stalker, non-creepy sort of way). It should be interesting and hopefully, I'll have something to report back to you  guys about.

Now, New York is a city that always does Christmas right.