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Tsingtao Beer Festival

Posted on November 03, 2011 By Julie

Guest blogger Mandy Feuerbacher shares her experiences from Qingdao in the Shandong province of China

Travis and I traveled to Qingdao, China, with six other friends towards the end of August.  You may have heard of Qingdao, China (or Tsingtao, as it is known in the West) from the beer that is brewed there, Tsingtao Beer, (self-proclaimed by the beer company as “The Most Famous Chinese Beer In The World”).  A big city in the Shandong province in Eastern China, Qingdao is a fascinating city because of its complicated history and heritage.  It was a German colony from 1898 to 1914, and then later on, occupied multiple times by the Japanese.  In different parts of the city, but particularly the old section, you can still see German influences in architecture.  We, of course, went to Qingdao to witness the most obvious signs of German colonization—the German-established Tsingtao Brewery (formerly known as Germania Brewery), and to have fun at the Tsingtao Beer Festival, which takes place annually over the course of 3 weeks at the end of August.

On a Friday evening, after work, eight of us boarded a flight from Beijing to Qingdao, eager for adventures in a new city.  Besides just the usual walking and sightseeing and the beer festival, we made it a point to go to the Tsingtao Beer Museum and Brewery. (Can you tell there’s a theme here?)

I have to say, the Tsingtao Brewery ranks as one of the top brewery tours I’ve taken.  While Travis likes to grunt that Tsingtao Beer is watery and bland, I’m a fan of light beer.  The eight of us walked through rooms and rooms of beer history, reading some of the best Chinglish descriptions I’ve ever laid eyes on.  The best was at the end of the tour, where there was an entire wall of “proof” that Tsingtao Beer was one of the most popular beers in the world.  Examples included photos of redneck Americans holding Tsingtao beer bottles (see photo), and a guy standing in line in a random convenience store with a case of Tsingtao.  Definitely hardcore proof.  And for 30 RMB (about $5), Travis and I were able to get our photo on the label of an actual bottle of Tsingtao Beer … wouldn’t everyone want to drink one of these?

Next up was the Tsingtao Beer Festival. Travis and I were really looking forward to this beer festival, because we have both visited the real Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, and wanted to compare our experiences with those at a Chinese beer festival.  Well, the Tsingtao Beer Festival was definitely amazing in its own right, but also a bit strange, as only experiences in China can be.  First, there were children running around everywhere.  Chinese beer-lovers, rather than finding babysitters, decided to take their kids along.  Furthermore, instead of the traditional beer festival food like pretzels, bratwursts, roast chicken, etc., there are crabs (you would think they would pick something easier to eat?), and ch’uar (meat kebabs). 

And instead of just singing traditional American songs in the beer tents like they do in Germany, the Chinese are auctioning off old Chinese paintings, or putting on a performance with jugglers, or having models walk a runway.  It was all very surreal.  Most funny of all, they have entire tables in the beer tents where Chinese men with hefty bellies will sit shirtless, drinking their pints.  Definitely not something you see everyday (or want to see, ever). 

And the Chinese, as economical as ever, have created something lighter than steins or beer mugs to carry beer in—bags.  So we saw people carrying beer bags up and down the street.

Overall, we had a fantastic time and enjoyed seeing Qingdao’s party culture.  Traveling around China has been a real perk to living in Beijing.

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