Ganbei with the world!

The flight was very short; less than 45 min over the Bohai Sea and the only service we received was a small bottle of water. It was a very unusual gift considering that we were flying to the capital city of Tzingdao Beer, Qingdao.

Of course, we had tried Tzingdao beer in all its forms – bottled, canned, draft – and it doesn’t taste that great – it’s sweet and not very strong – made for the Chinese market but surely the best way to promote Qingdao city would have been by having a beer on the plane, methinks.

Shandong Province and its largest city, Qingdao, has a very interesting history – Qingdao was ‘leased’ to Germany and another coastal town close by, Weihai, to Britain during the XIX century, and as a result there is a lot of European architecture visible in both cities. My favourite piece is the ambassador’s house in Qingdao built in a style typical of a Bavarian castle but with the added extravagance of a conservatory with a sliding ceiling. Inside the house all the furniture was imported from Germany including a piano manufactured in 1876 with ivory keys. The factory in Germany was destroyed during WWII but the piano still survives in Qingdao. Above the piano is a crystal chandelier in the shape of a flower, weighing around 1000 kg. In the reception hall there is a 9 meter high clock also made in Germany which strikes the hour with different chimes. It’s amazing how everything is still intact considering the very turbulent history of Qingdao.

To feel more at home in Qingdao, the Germans built a brewery as well. The history of the brewery is a microcosm of the history of Qingdao – exhibited in it are items from all of the great XIX century empires – the French, German and British, Russian and Japanese. Today the brewery is a pleasant place to visit and taste different beers.

Following the German influence on the region, the Chinese introduced a beer festival in 1991 which according to our guide, Mr Luo, is the biggest in the world! If you take into account that China is the most populated country in the world and that Chinese people love their beer then common sense would tell you that Qingdao’s Beer Festival must be the biggest one in the world. The Qingdao Beer Festival takes place in the last two weeks of August, and it’s almost the same as any beer fest in the world with fireworks at the beginning and end and live performances. And yes, you can take beer home in a plastic bag. The problem is that you can’t leave it in the fridge but you have to drink it. But that wasn’t really a problem….

Ganbei with the world!