嗨游 — We were here

崂山～

崂山 (Láo shān) are one of the mountains which are not the part of 五岳 (Wǔ yuè — Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism) or 四大道教名山 (Four Great Mountains of Taoism), nevertheless present great significance in Taoist culture. They've been given the highest, 5A rating, that means fancy infrastructure, beautiful views, high prices and a lot of people during main Chinese holidays. Going there for a weekend could be a smart choice. We had 3 days and were managed to explore almost all the worthy spots as well as some places of interest in Qingdao.

张三丰联系了在这儿。

According to locals, legendary 张三丰 (Zhàng Sānfēng), who is considered to be the creator of 太极拳 (Tàijí Quán) martial art and an eminent Taoist, was practicing here after moving from Wudangshan. One of the mountain trails leads to the certain site where he was practicing martial arts and Taoist meditation. Is it that same place? No one knows. What's known is these days there's a good Taoist school called 龙门派 (Lóngmén Pài) located here.

崂山茶～

Another big topic about Laoshan is Laoshan tea, and there will be a bigger post about it. For now let me just say that they plant a few awesome kinds of green (绿茶), red (红茶), wild (野茶), and yangsheng tea (养生茶), which is technically not a tea but considered as one. We tried 8 different kinds and liked most of those. The whole tea culture there is kind of unique because of it's nearness to the sea and a few historical reasons, but tea itself is very similar with some kinds of Wudangshan tea.