The coastline of Yantai’s Jinan Road is long and beautiful; a snapshot is a beautiful scene.
I spent three years at university in Yantai, the coastline of Jinan Road is very long and beautiful. In my spare time, I could take bus number 17 and pass through various attractions. The asphalt road reflects the blue sky and sea, and I would sit on the bus, blowing in the wind, which felt both refreshing and grounded. Compared to my parents' hometown of Zibo, here feels like paradise – blue skies and white clouds, and any photo taken is a beautiful painting. The people of Yantai are also more refined in their senses, at least they don't look as aggressive.
Regarding discrimination against outsiders, there is indeed discrimination against Northeasterners. Whether in rural areas or cities, Yantai people generally believe that Northeasterners are lazy, gluttonous, and slippery. However, the fact is that Northeasterners are much more shrewd than simple Shandong people, especially those venturing out – they are very resourceful and hardworking. Yantai does not have obvious discrimination against people from other regions. Yantai people have a strange sense of confidence in their hometown, believing that nowhere in the country is as good as the Shandong Peninsula. They are willing to boast about it to newcomers, which many outsiders find annoying.
This is somewhat similar to the people in the Suzhou region. Yantai doesn't have good universities like 211 and 985, which creates a feeling of something missing in the city. Good universities are also a city's calling card and scenery. While Weihai has Shandong University and Harbin Institute of Technology campuses, a good university brings not only a lot of young talent to the city, but also changes the atmosphere of the city. Let's talk about food – Yantai's seafood, given its coastal location, is nothing to boast about, with a wide variety of seafood that is not exaggerated. Furthermore, Yantai's seasonal fruits, produced locally, are very well-known. They cover almost all four seasons, besides the well-known Qixia apples, Haiyang peaches, Laiyang pears, and grapes, cherries, and blueberries, local products are very famous. In Xi'an and Beijing, it rarely snows, and when I hear that it snowed in Yantai, I search online for photos to see the magnificent snow scenes of that year. At that time, I longed for Yantai even more. Yantai may have all kinds of good things, but that's why I like it, because it has many beautiful memories.
There are my family and my memories, and my longing hasn't diminished over time, but it has become stronger. I remember sitting on my grandfather's old musical instruments, taking me to run around, and after dinner, we would go for a walk by the sea. On the way back, we would stop at Three Horse Road to buy grilled squid heads. When I was in college, I would play football with my classmates at the Marine College, New City College, and South Playground, together we would go to the seawater bathing beach to wash and bathe in the sea, together we would sit on the stone benches in the Garden to study, review, and take exams. We went to different cities to study and work and get married. Everyone had a different destiny, but when we returned home, we could all gather together to drink and chat, making us feel like we had never gotten old.
