The city’s best-known product, its namesake Tsingtao beer, still touts its mountain roots. In 1903, the German-British backed Nordic Brewery Company brewed its first lagers using a recipe of Moravian malt, Bohemian and Bavarian hops, and spring water carted from Laoshan. Later, a pipeline connected the Laoshan water table directly to wells on the brewery grounds. Today Tsingtao produces so much beer in its breweries around China — 122 million kegs’ worth a year — that Laoshan water is reserved only for beer brewed in Qingdao.
该城最有名的产品青岛啤酒，在宣传中仍不忘声称产自崂山山脚。1903年，由德国和英国联合创办的北欧啤酒公司(Nordic Brewery Company)用一种包括摩拉维亚大麦芽、波西米亚和巴伐利亚啤酒花以及崂山泉水，酿出了第一批啤酒。后来，一条管道将崂山的地下水和啤酒厂的水井直接连了起来。现今青岛啤酒在全国的产量是如此之高(每年1.22亿桶)，以至于崂山的泉水只能够供应青岛市酿造的啤酒。
There is still one original well left, a small hole ringed in hexagonal stone behind the brewery’s busy loading docks; it is no longer used and not part of the official tour. A guide tried to warn me away. “Be careful of the ghosts,” she said, as she backed far away.
现在青岛啤酒厂还留着一眼水井，位于厂区繁忙的装载码头后面，一个由六边形石头围起来的小孔。水井已不再使用，也不属于官方旅行团的目的地。一名导游试图警告我远离之。“请小心那些鬼魂，”她一边说一边后退。
I knew that a fear of wells is a common Chinese superstition, instilled by cautious grandmothers and history books detailing concubines’ bad ends. But as I peered skeptically into the mouth of the well, a cool gust rose from its depths and distinctly brushed past like gentle fingers on my cheek. A squawking horn and the squeal of brakes abruptly cut into the scene. If something more than water had traveled through the pipe, it was now scurrying back to the mountain to escape the din of delivery trucks.
我知道，很多中国人害怕水井是他们迷信的组成部分，这种恐惧由谨小慎微的外婆和描述小妾投井而死的历史书灌输进孩子的大脑。但当我对着井口望下去时，一阵凉风从井底升起，像温柔的手指一般拂过我的脸颊。一阵喧闹的喇叭和尖厉的刹车声，突然刺破了这里的宁静。如果管道中有除了水以外的东西存在，它一定会迅速跑回大山，来逃避运输卡车刺耳的噪音。
THE SUN WAS SETTING behind Laoshan’s foothills when we rounded a bend in the trail, and there the dusty soil turned into packed mud. The mud ringed a copper-green pool about as wide and as deep as a swimming pool, the “Prinzenbad” — Prince’s Bath, according to a boulder beside it inscribed when German entrepreneurs ran beer halls and a sanitarium on the mountain in the early 20th century. The water was clear but it was warm and still, save for schools of tadpoles that roiled in black ribbons. We splashed our faces and continued on.
我们顺着徒步路线转过一个弯道之后，太阳沉入了崂山的背面。灰尘飞扬的地面也变成一片厚重的淤泥。在这泥泞的包围之中，是一个铜绿色的池子，宽度和深度都与游泳池差不多。根据池边一块石头上的铭文，它叫公主池，20世纪早期的时候德国企业家们在这里开啤酒馆，还在山里开了一家疗养院。水很干净，却温暖而凝滞，偶尔会有黑丝带一般在水中翻滚的一群群蝌蚪。我们洗了把脸，继续前行。
Around another bend there was a boulder boldly inscribed with the Chinese character “cha” — tea, which signaled we had found a place to stay for the night. In the mountains, some families open their homes as nongjiale, informal guesthouses where you sleep in a spare (or temporarily vacated) bed.
在另一个转弯处有一块巨石，上面刻着一个醒目的汉字：“茶”。这意味着我们找到了今晚休息的地方。在山区，一些农民会将自家的房子设成农家乐旅馆，客人可以在他们闲余或临时腾空的卧室休息。
Lao Huang’s house was a low-slung shelter of stone surrounded by gardens and tea fields that extended deep into the gentle slope of a U-shaped valley. Lao Huang was not there, but his wife, He Fenghong, appeared from behind a bundle of firewood, her baby grandson strapped to her back.
老黄家的房子是个低矮的石屋，周围有花园，还有延伸到一个U型峡谷深处的茶田。老黄不在家，但他的妻子何凤红(音译)从一堆柴火后面抬起头来，小孙子用布袋绑在身后。
“You must be thirsty,” she said. Soon she was pouring tea brewed from leaves she had picked from the bushes all around the house. We gulped it down, and then helped her catch one of the chickens roaming in the yard for our dinner.
“你们一定渴了吧，”她说。很快她就开始给我们倒茶，茶叶是她从自家屋外采来的。我们一口气喝光，接着又去后院帮她抓了一只土鸡，做我们晚餐的食材。
After we sat down to eat at a low table set on the family kang (a stone platform built over the wood-burning stove that would also serve as our bed), Lao Huang returned from picking up supplies on the other side of the mountain.
我们坐在炕(一种建在木柴火炉上的石头平台，也是我们的床)上矮桌前开始吃饭时，老黄在大山另一侧买完生活必需品，回家了。
Like his wife, Lao Huang looked many years younger than his age, which he said was “still not yet 50.” I asked him how he had managed to find himself in such a beautiful place, and half-jokingly he explained that no one else wanted to have to carry everything on their backs. It took him three days of hiking every few months to bring in what they needed, he said.
像他的妻子一样，老黄的面相显得很年轻。他的实际年龄用他自己的话说是“还不到50”。我问他如何找到这么一个美妙的地方居住，他半开玩笑地说，因为别人都不愿像他一样所有东西都靠背。他说，每隔几个月他们就需要出门购买生活用品，每次采购往返都要徒步三天。
The one thing delivered to them was water. Lao Huang had installed plumbing — a hose running nearly a third of a mile up a cliff to a pristine, spring-fed pool.
唯一不用背的东西是水。老黄装了个水泵，用一条水管沿着山崖向上爬1/3英里，通向一个古朴的泉水池。
“You can have anything you want in the city,” Lao Huang said. But, he noted, “You have what you need in the mountains.” Then he laughed. He had a way of talking about things in short, profound sentences capped with raucous laughter.
“在城里，你想要什么就有什么，”老黄说。但他又接着说：“但在山里，你需要什么也就有什么。”说完，自己发出哈哈大笑。他的句子简洁但深刻，总是以豪爽的大笑结尾。
I asked if he was worried about the water, it was so low.
我问他是否担心水的问题，水量看着不多了。
“When it rains, the creeks will fill,” Lao Huang said. “The water is high, then the water is low, but there’s always water. Trust the mountain.” And he laughed again.
“下雨的时候，溪水都是满的，”老黄说。“水有时多，有时少，但不会没有水。相信大山吧。”又是一阵大笑。
In the morning, we woke to a rooster and then a cacophony of sparrows, turtledoves and Lao Huang’s pair of yellow dogs calling to the sun. We watched the mist slowly blanket Laoshan’s clefts and valleys in white, as we ate our breakfast of eggs, rice porridge and tea. Then, with full stomachs, we headed over the pass.
第二天早晨，一只公鸡把我们叫醒，还有麻雀和斑鸠的啁啾，老黄家的两只黄狗也在对着太阳汪汪叫着。我们一边吃鸡蛋、米粥和茶水组成的早餐，一边看着晨雾像白色的毯子一样缓慢覆盖了崂山的高山和低谷。然后我们带着吃饱的肚子，直奔下一个山口。
When we reached the Beijiushui Scenic Area on the other side of the mountain, we joined the tourists on the paved walkways as they clustered around the posted signs and inscriptions carved into the canyon walls that gave every bend in the water a name. We passed a chain of small pools, each an increasingly saturated shade of blue as we drew closer to their source, Chaoyin Pubu, a waterfall that was named for the sound of the ocean tides.
到达崂山另一侧的北九水风景区时，我们在山路上加入了其他游客。他们聚集在路标和崖壁上的铭文前认真研读，景区给河流的每一段都取了名字。我们走过几个小湖泊，随着它们的水源——潮音瀑布越来越近，湖水的蓝色也依次加深。潮音瀑布的意思是海潮的声音。
At the end of the walkway, we looked up. A trickle of water emerged from the rocks some 20 feet above and then slid into the sapphire pool below.
在徒步路线的终点，我们抬头仰望。一线水流从大约20英尺高的石缝中滴下来，落入下方宝蓝色的幽潭。
Just downstream, people were crouched at the pool’s edge marveling at the limpid water and drawing deep sips of it from cupped hands. I made my way down, too, and filled my canteen. I drank it on the drive back to Qingdao, as the sky opened up and it started to rain.
潭水的下游，人们在池边蹲下身来，惊叹这赤水的宁静无波，然后捧起清水送入口中。我学着他们的样子，将潭水装满了我的水壶。回青岛的路上，我一边喝水一边看着天光变幻，一场好雨终于来了。
HOW EXTREME?
徒步难度?
Rankings are from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very).
从1(基本无难度)到4(非常难)都有。
Remoteness: 2
荒凉度：2
Most of Laoshan’s scenic parts are paved and well-traveled, but once you venture away from the ice cream carts, expect mostly unmarked trails.
崂山景区大部分地方都铺了路，游客很多，但一旦离开主干道上的冰淇淋推车，你就要做好大多数徒步线路都没有标识的心理准备。
Creature Discomforts: 3
物质享受：3
A stay in a nongjiale is always rustic. Lao Huang’s has pit toilets, and the running water is a hose connected to a spring.
农家乐的住宿条件都很简陋。老黄家有蹲坑式厕所，供水则来自用皮管连起来的一处水泉。
Physical Difficulty: 2
体力难度：2
If you choose to hike, all you need are decent walking shoes and a sense of direction. A bottle of water (especially in the dry season) is always a good idea.
如果你决定徒步，只需一双质量不错的休闲鞋并有一定的方向感。带一瓶水(尤其是旱季)永远是个好主意。
