29th to 31st of August 2014
Introduction:
It was the first trip we had with almost all my close friends in Beijing - 8 people: the group was separated between 2 smaller groups one of them arriving on Friday night:
General information:
Qingdao is a city on the south west coast of China, 5h away from Beijing by train and especially famous among foreigners for its beer (which you can actually find in every Chinese restaurant in the world): Tsingtao!
Indeed, the city used to be a German colony and they brought the know how of brewing beer. Since then Tsingtao beer is the world reference regarding Chinese beer.
Why we chose Qingdao? Well it seems evident.... The beer festival was happening there :)
Here we go:
The funny part starts since the begging of this trip... Our train was leaving at 18h30 from Beijing so I asked my boss to leave a bit earlier work as I needed around an hour to reach the train station... So I did.
A station before reaching the Beijing railway station I called Fernando and asked him if I was on the right station ... Well as you can imagine it was the wrong one, I needed to go to the South railway station ... In 25min. Considering the facts that:
5h later we arrived in Qingdao and went to straight to our hostel to check in. The hostel was located in the downtown nearby the bar/restaurant street. We were hungry and thirsty and went looking for restaurants. We reached the street which was surprisingly empty for a Friday night... Well Chinese people usually don't eat late or drink...
We found a nice place and had some food.
Chinese people are very surprised when they see foreigners in less cosmopolitan cities (like Qingdao). There were 4-5 men sitting on a table next to ours who offered us a box of 9 special Tsingtao beers. Very nice and friendly, and we were very grateful to drink something nice for free :) ... Who won't be!?:)
The next day we woke up around 9h and went to explore the city. As every respectful foreign group first stop was the supermarket from where we bought something to eat and some beers (adding to the ones we didn't managed to finish the night before).
Doing this, we became the attraction in the local bus where Chinese people were surprised:
There was a huge traffic jam but after an hour we manage to go to the square of 4th of May (which was near the sea, and representing the moment Qingdao became part of China). As always in China everything is big: the square also was huge compared to my standards !
We then walked around the bay and went to buy some souvenirs from the local market.
It was the first trip we had with almost all my close friends in Beijing - 8 people: the group was separated between 2 smaller groups one of them arriving on Friday night:
- Kathy, Adrian, Fernando, Claudia and me;
- Gutcha, Ala and Francesco.
General information:
Qingdao is a city on the south west coast of China, 5h away from Beijing by train and especially famous among foreigners for its beer (which you can actually find in every Chinese restaurant in the world): Tsingtao!
Indeed, the city used to be a German colony and they brought the know how of brewing beer. Since then Tsingtao beer is the world reference regarding Chinese beer.
Why we chose Qingdao? Well it seems evident.... The beer festival was happening there :)
Here we go:
The funny part starts since the begging of this trip... Our train was leaving at 18h30 from Beijing so I asked my boss to leave a bit earlier work as I needed around an hour to reach the train station... So I did.
A station before reaching the Beijing railway station I called Fernando and asked him if I was on the right station ... Well as you can imagine it was the wrong one, I needed to go to the South railway station ... In 25min. Considering the facts that:
- between 17:30 and 19h it is the rush hour
- the distance between the subway stations are quite big the change between subways is longer than in Europe, and that there is a security check in the train station where they check you ticket and your luggage...
5h later we arrived in Qingdao and went to straight to our hostel to check in. The hostel was located in the downtown nearby the bar/restaurant street. We were hungry and thirsty and went looking for restaurants. We reached the street which was surprisingly empty for a Friday night... Well Chinese people usually don't eat late or drink...
We found a nice place and had some food.
Chinese people are very surprised when they see foreigners in less cosmopolitan cities (like Qingdao). There were 4-5 men sitting on a table next to ours who offered us a box of 9 special Tsingtao beers. Very nice and friendly, and we were very grateful to drink something nice for free :) ... Who won't be!?:)
The next day we woke up around 9h and went to explore the city. As every respectful foreign group first stop was the supermarket from where we bought something to eat and some beers (adding to the ones we didn't managed to finish the night before).
Doing this, we became the attraction in the local bus where Chinese people were surprised:
- 1/seeing foreigners,
- 2/seeing foreigners drinking beer in the morning in a public bus :)
There was a huge traffic jam but after an hour we manage to go to the square of 4th of May (which was near the sea, and representing the moment Qingdao became part of China). As always in China everything is big: the square also was huge compared to my standards !
We then walked around the bay and went to buy some souvenirs from the local market.
Around noon we decided to go for lunch next to the beach and get closer to the beer festival. I realized that the city is quite big as we spent 20-25min to reach the other side of the city.
After a lunch in a nice restaurant we went straight to the beach so we can enjoy the sun and meet Ala, Gutcha and Cesco.
Well the beach is definitely not the beach you will see in south east Asia... The sand was dark, the water didn't seem very clean and a lot of people were sitting around.... for the last point, in China there are always a lot of people :)
However this didn't stop up to enjoy the the time together.
Soon later we met Ala, Gutcha and Cesco, and we enjoy a small beach football competion.
After a lunch in a nice restaurant we went straight to the beach so we can enjoy the sun and meet Ala, Gutcha and Cesco.
Well the beach is definitely not the beach you will see in south east Asia... The sand was dark, the water didn't seem very clean and a lot of people were sitting around.... for the last point, in China there are always a lot of people :)
However this didn't stop up to enjoy the the time together.
Soon later we met Ala, Gutcha and Cesco, and we enjoy a small beach football competion.
In the late afternoon we went to the beer festival. We were very excited about it, but by the end a bit disappointed because:
We spent few hours in the festival (enough time to be tipsy) and then we decided to go back to the hostel and go for dinner in the bar street.
This time there were a little bit more people. Much more animated too thanks to music bands which were passing around the tables and singing for the people. That night a group of Chinese offered us a free 3 songs rounds with of of the band. Very funny (cf video soon). We enjoyed one more time the beer over there but as the night was still young, then we went to a bar in the downtown. Well Qingdao is not as cosmopolitan as Beijing but it was nice to have a drink in a bar & play some games
- - I guess to limit the access and the influence, there was an entrance fees
- -inside the beer was not as cheap as I was expecting. For me a festival is a place where you let people in and you reduce the price so you can make benefits from the quantity of beer sold... But then after checking I realized that even in Germany the beer was more expensive during the October fest.
We spent few hours in the festival (enough time to be tipsy) and then we decided to go back to the hostel and go for dinner in the bar street.
This time there were a little bit more people. Much more animated too thanks to music bands which were passing around the tables and singing for the people. That night a group of Chinese offered us a free 3 songs rounds with of of the band. Very funny (cf video soon). We enjoyed one more time the beer over there but as the night was still young, then we went to a bar in the downtown. Well Qingdao is not as cosmopolitan as Beijing but it was nice to have a drink in a bar & play some games
The last day we went to the beer museum of Tsingtao. It was the first time for me visiting one of them. It was interesting to see the story of the arrival of the beer in China imported by the Germans, the evolution of the adds, the evolution of the methods and last but not least the free deduction after the visit.
After this visit it was already time to go back to Beijing. We took a bus and we went for a lunch near the train station.
If I have to summarize this weekend...
Well we managed to combine beer and nice visits ! Does somebody knows a better way to spend a weekend ? :)
After this visit it was already time to go back to Beijing. We took a bus and we went for a lunch near the train station.
If I have to summarize this weekend...
Well we managed to combine beer and nice visits ! Does somebody knows a better way to spend a weekend ? :)
