Qingdao Beer Festival 08

Two weekends ago we took the train to Qingdao (the city SE of Beijing where the sailing Olympics were held) to go, not to the Olympic site, nor to any cultural and historic places of interest, but to an international beer festival. Seriously, this is a big deal, people. GERMAN BEER. GOOD BEER. REAL BEER. It's not available here.

So, 6 hours by high speed train (you could have told me I was in Europe and I would have believed you; the train was brand new and gleaming and traveled at 170 km/h), and we're there.
The "beer city," as it was called, was really what we'd call a fair or a carnival: rides and stalls and games and snacks. Oh, and huge tents all over the place selling beer and providing live entertainment (Korean popstars, fire breathers, etc).

Qingdao beer was cheapest, and came in bags. They didn't really get the concept of pouring beer on a slant so as to reduce the foam....


Somebody had a frisbee? So we drank out of that alot.




Chinese people were REALLY psyched about us white kids, and we barely bought ourselves beer for two days straight; we were constantly toasted and given beer, drinking with Chinese of all ages and types, even children as young as THREE (I kid you not!)

Too bad we missed our train back on the third day because nobody could quite make it out of bed in time to get to the train station before that train blasted the hell out of there.