After Helly Hansen brand photoshoot (see previous post), which took place on Friday (November 12) in one of Shanghai’s studios near Zhongshan Park, I headed straight to Hongqiao Airport, where I already had a flight booked to city of Qingdao.
Qingdao, in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, is a beautiful port city of skyscrapers, parks and beaches bordering the Yellow Sea. It is known for Tsingtao beer, the legacy of the German occupation (1898-1914). Its population is just over 9 million people.
The reason for visiting Qingdao was a modeling job, a photoshoot for the renowned Caser brand there.
After a late night landing at the brand new Qingdao Airport, currently one of the largest and most modern in the world (some pictures in the gallery), I took a TAXI, which I shared with a model from Russia, named Sveta, who took a same car directly from her end, as she lives right in this province, in a city near Qingdao. We drove over 2 hours to the location where our hotel, as well as photoshoot location was. The path led us along the city highways. As we drifted away, the road narrowed more and more, the buildings getting lower and lower in number. The road was rising and becoming more and more winding and furrowed. It was night so the surroundings could not be seen. After a long drive we arrived at the villa where we spent the night. The villa was new, built in living rock and intended exclusively for vacation. The room was more than I could have wished for – brand new, clean, nicely furnished along with interesting decorative elements (see the gallery). There was even a balcony with a view, but duo the night darkness there was nothing much to see. Before sleep agent Linda from Qingdao greeted us with some goodies, in case of hunger, along with warm drinking water as the air temperature was only 3 degrees Celsius. Soon after, as it was already 3 in the morning, I called it a day and got some rest before long working Saturday.
I woke up in the morning about an hour before the alarm I set at 7.40.
Every minute and every hour of driving the night before weighed as soon as I pulled back the curtains on the balcony window. A beautiful scene appeared in front of me. Crystal clear sky, the first rays of the sun and an endless view of the sea. In situations like this, I like to say: “This is why, it is worth living.” I expected the location to be something special, as otherwise we wouldn’t have driven so long and so far, but I still couldn’t imagine such a scenario.
Simply wonderful!
