Qingdao – 27 March

If only we were here in August staying at the Blue Horizon Hotel… we could be enjoying ourselves at the Qingdao Beer Plaza, which was just around the corner from our hotel, where the annual Qingdao International Beer Festival is held (the largest in Asia).  Foreigners who have attended this festival claim to have enjoyed themselves very much without having to pay for any beer due to the generosity of Qingdao-ians!

Sadly for us, it is only March, so we travelled across town by cab, with our trusty guide Tiara (one of Xiaohong’s students), to visit Tsingdao beer museum and factory.  We didn’t realize just how immense Qingdao is until we travelled across it.  The museum was located on Beer Street, the “birth place of beer culture”.  It was well set up as a museum taking visitors through the history and old methods of production while interspersing with the new methods.  At the end, visitors have the opportunity to walk through a trick room designed to make visitors walk like they have enjoyed too many beers.  Greg thoroughly enjoyed himself and the free sample to top it off… well, he also enjoyed my sample. 

After a short walk around Beer Street and vicinity, we decided to wait at the Original Cellar for the rest of our dinner crowd to arrive; Xiaohong, Huiwang Gao (colleague) and his wife.

We regret very much that we did not have time to see more of Qingdao because it is an amazing city.  So I suppose it tops the list of our cities to visit again.  We loved it!