common ground: Qingdao: A Thirsty City

One tell-tale sign of culture is what the people eat, or in Qingdao's case--what people drink. Although Qingdao's economy is it's beer industry, there is also wine street and coffee and tea art street. I wasn't too surprised to see wine street, as China's wine consumption has risen dramatically over the past decade along with its westernization but my beloved coffee is still an emerging market. Most cities will still practice the 2 hour siesta lunch break during the day so a jump start of caffeine is not always necessary.

Image courtesy of ilombardo via travelpod

Image courtesy of echinacities.com

I love Qingdao already but if it becomes a pioneer of the coffee market as well, I think I may have to stake out a summer home one day in this beach town, but I digress. We didn't have time to do coffee and tea art or wine street.

The heart of Qingdao is it's beer industry which was established by the Germans with the completion of a brewery.

The Chinese have taken great pride in their Tsingtao. Below are some of the many varieties available including the Black stout and limited edition Olympic cans with cartoons that make it look slightly more like soda for kids than beer.

The new brewery is built right next to the old brewery which is now a museum.

One of the exhibits is the "drunken house" which is definitely more than just a slanted room. My theory is that it must sway ever so slightly because I felt a fool in that place.

Overall, the brewery/museum is pretty interesting and well laid out though it doesn't top the Guinness Storehouse Brewery in design and free beer. You get two 4 oz. samples of Tsingtao draft and Tsingtao unfiltered plus a pack of Chinese-style, sweet beer nuts. The best part of the museum is the final beer hall where you can watch awkward tour groups get wasted. To the side their is also a booth where you can personalize your own beer bottle with your picture. The Chinese are so vain--especially when it comes to wedding pictures and glamor shots.

If you've read my earlier posts, you might notice that I have a penchant for taking pictures of sewer caps. This is because every sewer cap in each city is unique and personalized for that city. According to my mother, sewer caps are sometimes stolen and sold as scrap metal. If there is a name on the sewer cap, it makes it harder to hock on the black market.

The Qingdao sewer cap for Beer Street outside of the brewery is so cute! However, I worry that this might target children in its advertisement of beer.

Qingdao is also really good for seafood. Along Beer Street restaurants will have their catches of the day displayed right when you walk in so you can take your pick. There's nothing like fresh seafood with beer on a hot summer day.

We continued our appreciation of Qingdao's beverages on the beach where they sell beer by the liter. This is No. 1 Bathing Beach, one of the prettiest beaches along the coast.