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.
Chinese regional cuisine: Shandong food, defiantly humble
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
Qingdao is by the sea, just across the water from Korea and Japan. So bibimbap, sushi and similar are no strangers to the city’s bill of fare, but it’s – drum roll – seafood that reigns supreme. Chilli sautéed clams might be too much for some tastes, but seafood noodles (sometimes with a few bits of pork chucked in for good measure) are almost universally acceptable.
Roast squid is one of the staples of the city’s street-food stands, while anyone feeling peckish between meals usually goes for a mackerel dumpling or six. Braised prawns and braised sea cucumber with scallions usually grace high-end banquets.
Note: Qingdao’s Huadong winery provides some very acceptable alternatives to Tsingtao beer.
Getting around
Three hundred minutes with a fair wind aboard Cathay Dragon, and you’re touching down at Liuting International, HK$3,500ish (about US$450) lighter, but with a return ticket in your pocket. Other airlines make the trip, but rather unsportingly stop somewhere in between.
Once on the ground, a taxi into town costs around 80 yuan. Most drivers skipped high school or indeed any other English lessons, so a translation app is your best friend. Getting about Qingdao, flag fall is 9 yuan: there’s a modest and forgivable surcharge between 10pm and 5am.
New bike lanes in Laoshan make pedalling rather more enjoyable than in years past, and the seaside corniche is also cycle-friendly. Daily hire for a steed clocks in at 50 yuan. And no, there is no city ordinance decreeing you have to leave your passport as a deposit.
Plus
At the height of the Cultural Revolution, a mob of Red Guards announced they were going to demolish the imperialist Governor’s Mansion, which had been built with more than a nod to German art nouveau at the turn of the century and latterly turned into a hotel. The manager – bright spark – pointed out that it was Mao Zedong’s favourite bit of Qingdao. Consequence: volte-face. So the brethren set off to mess up the Protestant church instead, but not very much, as both it and the gov’s pad (now a museum) rank as two of the city’s top sights today.
Tsingtao, founded in 1903, was perhaps one of the most successful Anglo-German start-ups of all time. Messrs Prentice, McLeod and Wrightson may have sat on the board, but Herr Schuster and Herr Wehle were the brewmasters, and woe betide anyone who tried to stint on the German Reinheitsgebot (“purity law”) of 1516. The ingredients are more varied nowadays, but the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders reached 1.4 billion yuan last year, despite its green-hued spirulina ale.
