Running in Qingdao

The city of Qingdao is famous among triathletes, but famous for its
Tsingtao Beer not for running or cycling courses. I only had one
free afternoon to experience the city, so naturally I decided to put
together an epic running course covering most of the city's
sightseeing highlights. I could not find much information on Qingdao,
but after scrutinizing the hotel map, I set out on a course that would
take over five hours of running/hiking/walking from east to west with
a taxi ride in the middle.

I had a taxi drop me off on the far eastern edge of greater Qingdao at
LaoShan Mountain's Taiquing Tao Temple.
It was beautiful autumn day and with the help of friendly locals I
found a path leading up the mountain looping around the coast and then
back along a ridge that parallels the coast. The path took me past
waterfalls and granite rock formations for about 10k (here is map of
this section of run).
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/china/qingdao/514601474
(use the map's satellite view)

I was descending from mountain after close to 90 minutes of
running/hiking when I met a group of Danish and Canadian travelers
with whom I shared a taxi back to center of town. They had done a
much better job negotiating taxi fares out to Lao Shan and back. I
was told to expect to pay $30 to hire a taxi to get out to LaoShan
(one-way) and congratulated myself to have paid $20. My new friends
only paid $15 (for the round-trip) -- one of the advantages of staying
at a youth hostel. One of them told me (rather apologetically) that
he was on a "whirlwind" China trip of only 5-weeks and was spending a
mere 4-days in Qingdao. I hated to admit that I was only spending 36
hours in Qingdao, and had been thinking even that a rather extravagant
use of time.

The center of Qingdao is a forest of gleaming skyscrapers and
fountains and Starbucks and well-dressed urban professionals. I
re-started my run at the Sea Fountain, a strange piece of plop art
that the Qingdao city officials seem intent on making the symbol of
Qingdao (rather than the more familiar image of a Tsingtao beer
bottle). I ran along on impressive series of urban beaches where the
2008 Olympic sailing competition will be held. It was a weekday but
the beach was filled with wedding parties shooting wedding portraits
at sunset. I lost count of the brides in wedding dresses after 20.

The 9 kilometers along the waterfront path in the late afternoon was
great running. But for me the highlight of running in Qingdao was the
last 5 kilometers of my run in the older western section of the city.
I weaved my way up and down the streets filled with magnificent
colonial architecture. It felt just like being in Germany except
there were more Chinese restaurants.

Here is a map of the second half of my run:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/china/qingdao/302931086
Again use satellite image to see this