Brief Encounters | A weekend break in Qingdao – there’s more to the Chinese port city than beer
- On the Shandong province coast, across from Korea and Japan, Qingdao offers seafood galore and colonial German architecture
- Its most famous export, Tsingtao, is not the area’s only alcoholic output – Huadong Vineyard makes some very palatable pours
Chinese ji ke (geeks) came up with gunpowder, mechanical clocks, the compass, the wheelbarrow and a host of other handy everyday objects, and from the looks of things in Qingdao, especially around this time of year, a casual observer might be tempted to think they invented Oktoberfest, too. In point of fact, the Shandong city’s annual tribute to amber nectar started in 1991 and has grown into a month-long suds fest that swamps the Huangdao and Laoshan districts (this year’s instalment runs from July 26 to August 18).
Admission is a footling 10 yuan (US$1.5), breweries from around the world pour in to compete with local hero Tsingtao in an attempt to ramp up their market share, and the froth and frolic extend well past dusk. It is billed as Asia’s largest beer binge, and is backed up with mountains of food (bratwurst, baozi, Beijing duck) and a raft of entertainment: think fireworks, music and lissom young things gallivanting about on stage in swimsuits.
Too raucous? The Tsingtao International Music Festival is running from August 2 to 11. And anyone fond of German architecture (like Hong Kong, Qingdao was once a treaty port) will find plenty to amuse the senses by strolling around the old town of Badaguan.
Where to sleep
To start with the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: is The Lalu worth it? Stump up about US$500 and you get a night at the seaside property designed by the late Australian architect Kerry Hill: limestone flooring, timber panelling, and the feeling that this is more like an art gallery than somewhere to kip. There’s certainly nowhere to cap it architecturally anywhere else in the city, and come lunch or dinner there’s rarely a spare table at the Chinese or Japanese restaurants.
By way of contrast, the China Community Art and Culture Hotel also falls in the “design” bracket, but it is modern Chinese (blended with traditional) rather than modernist international. It is also substantially cheaper (US$64 a night).
What to buy
Shopping tends to gravitate around the pedestrianised strip Taidong San Lu, where a night market takes over after the regular shops have closed. The action dies down about 11pm. Qingdao does a lot of marine souvenirs – seashells, dried seafood and the like. Taidong is as much somewhere to stroll as it is to shop, and its murals are exceptionally colourful and photogenic.
What to eat
