On the way back from Beijing a few weeks ago I hooked by Qingdao, a medium-size city (pop 8.5m) facing Japan and Korea across the Yellow Sea. Qingdao is a major port and naval base – it was the venue for the sailing events at the recent Olympic Games – and, more importantly, is the home of the Tsingtao Brewery.

Qingdao is also unbelievably smoggy. You’d think being on the coast that all the crap in the air would get flushed out, but seemingly not so. It’s a shame because it’s quite a nice town and, as well as the seafront, it has some rather impressive mountains as a backdrop. It’s a favourite summer spot for holidaying Chinese and it’s set up with all the gaudy tourist attractions you could imagine including a Seaworld with dolphins and polar bears.

An interesting aspect of Chinese culture is that when a couple gets married, they have their wedding photographs taken weeks, sometimes months, before the ceremony itself. A popular photo location in Qindao is the square in front of the old(ish) German Catholic church and on a sunny day you will see literally dozens of ‘brides’ and ‘grooms’, all in hired outfits with their jeans and sneakers on underneath, posing for the pony-tailed photographers.

On the last day I was there I got a Facebook message from an old Colenso colleague which mentioned that a woman we used to work with was living somewhere in China. A quick Google and I discovered that, amazingly, Jan was in Qingdao and, even more amazingly, she got my email during the day and we were able to meet up for a drink and dinner. It really is a small world.