Destination Qingdao - Plan Your Summer Beer Drinking Now

Qingdao is located on China's east coast in Shandong Province. Korea and Japan lie just to the east across the Yellow Sea. Famous for its beaches as well as its beer, Qingdao is surrounded by the sea on three sides and boasts 730km of unbroken coastline. It is an important port city in China and will host the 2008 Olympic Sailing events.

According to an old Chinese saying, there are four things a visitor to Qingdao must do: swim in the ocean, drink a Tsingtao beer, eat fried clams and climb Mt. Laoshan.

A good time to go drinking and enjoy some festival activity is during the annual Qingdao International Beer Festival held this year from August 11-28. The festival revolves around drinking large jugs of beer but there are plenty of other activities such as concerts, kids' activities and special food tastings.

Beijing Olympic Logo (left) © Copyright The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Photo (right): festival participant raises a mug of Tsingtao. Courtesy of the the official site for the Qingdao International Beer Festival 2006.