Thursday, August 31, 2006
Qingdao Pijiu Jie 青岛啤酒节
Qingdao Beer Festival.
The Chinese Manchu government ceded the coastal city Qingdao to Kaiser Wilhelm II, the awesomely-named German emperor and king of Prussia in 1898 in retribution for killing two German missionaries. As Germans do, they immediately commenced a regime of efficiency and beer brewing, the latter resulting in the famous (at least in China) Qingdao beer brand. Some may know this as "Tsingtao" instead of "Qingdao" a classic example of the confusion caused by differing systems of phonetic Romanization of Chinese characters. If you're not up to speed on all the subtle differences between Pinyin and Wade-Giles, just know that both the beer and the city are pronounced "Ching dow".
Qingdao is the vastly superior Budweiser of China. Ubiquitous in all restaurants, convenience stores and karaoke bars. A bargain at 4 to 15 yuan a bottle. Each year, the city Qingdao pays homage to the beer with the Qingdao Pijiu jie. Laurel and I joined two friends for a long weekend enjoying the beer (served neatly in a plastic bag), beaches and seafood that rightfully make Qingdao famous.
The beer festival gets a thumbs up, the beaches a crowded, dirty thumbs down (at least in Qingdao ... see picture below ... nearby Huangdao was nice), and the seafood two big thumbs up.
Finally, we've had requests for more pictures of the authors, so here you go, Mom.
The Chinese Manchu government ceded the coastal city Qingdao to Kaiser Wilhelm II, the awesomely-named German emperor and king of Prussia in 1898 in retribution for killing two German missionaries. As Germans do, they immediately commenced a regime of efficiency and beer brewing, the latter resulting in the famous (at least in China) Qingdao beer brand. Some may know this as "Tsingtao" instead of "Qingdao" a classic example of the confusion caused by differing systems of phonetic Romanization of Chinese characters. If you're not up to speed on all the subtle differences between Pinyin and Wade-Giles, just know that both the beer and the city are pronounced "Ching dow".
Qingdao is the vastly superior Budweiser of China. Ubiquitous in all restaurants, convenience stores and karaoke bars. A bargain at 4 to 15 yuan a bottle. Each year, the city Qingdao pays homage to the beer with the Qingdao Pijiu jie. Laurel and I joined two friends for a long weekend enjoying the beer (served neatly in a plastic bag), beaches and seafood that rightfully make Qingdao famous.
The beer festival gets a thumbs up, the beaches a crowded, dirty thumbs down (at least in Qingdao ... see picture below ... nearby Huangdao was nice), and the seafood two big thumbs up.
Finally, we've had requests for more pictures of the authors, so here you go, Mom.
# posted by tim @ 5:10 PM 
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