After many years of talking about attending the "Oktoberfest" of China, this year we finally made it down to the city of Qingdao for their Beer Festival. Stacey, Derek, Justin and I headed down in September for a long weekend of eating and drinking.
One of the most interesting, and famous, parts of Qingdao is the method in which people actually consume the beer: in a plastic bag. This proved to be true, not only as a "to-go" method, but also when bringing beer back to your home. We watched as a local man ordered five litres of beer from a roadside stand. It was pulled from the keg straight into a plastic bag, weighed and tied off for the man to carry home.
We visited the Tsingtao Beer Factory and Museum, which was quite interesting, showing the history of Qingdao Beer advertisement and company structure as well as a functioning factory. We also got to taste both the raw and filtered beer.
One fun part was a "tipsy" ride, which must be trying to simulate how you'd walk if you stayed in the tasting portion of the museum too long. Stacey loved it...and went through twice.
The final room is a large cafeteria style place where you can order cheap Qingdao by the pitcher and buy gifts. The men-folk left us for one second to buy some beer, which proved to be totally unnecessary when Stacey and I were left like sitting ducks and bombarded with every other Chinese tourist wanting to "Gambei" (like "Cheers", but literally means - and used in practice as - finish the glass). We finished our glass with countless people until the guys came back to rescue us, by which time we needed to take a seat. Saying no in China, especially involving drinking in social situations, is not an option.
The beer festival itself was enormous, with tent after tent of entertainment and beer from around the world. Again the "foreigners" were the spectacle, and person after person came up to try and "Gambei" the guys under the table.
The next day we headed to the beach. Which was surprisingly nice. There were pretty nice public restrooms, restaurants with tables out in the sand, and the option to order a keg to drink as you have a beach party. We sat down at a table and ate fresh barbecued seafood while we drank cold beer. Absolutely no complaints.
