Holiday in Qingdao

About Qingdao

Qingdao is China's most surprising coastal city — a place where Bavarian half-timbered houses stand next to Chinese temples, where the most famous beer in China (Tsingtao) is brewed according to the German purity law, and where kilometers of sandy beaches meet a modern port metropolis with 7 million inhabitants. The German colonial history (1898-1914) has left Qingdao with an architectural heritage that is unique in China: In the district around the Protestant Christ Church and the Catholic St. Michael's Cathedral, Art Nouveau villas, governor's residences, and cobblestone streets line up, which one would expect more in a Baltic Sea city than on the Chinese coast. The Tsingtao Brewery, founded by German settlers in 1903, still produces at the original site — the attached museum with beer tasting is one of the city's most popular attractions. The coastline is Qingdao's greatest treasure: The Zhanqiao Pier, the city's landmark, juts 440 meters into the sea and ends in an octagonal pavilion. The beaches of Shilaoren and Huiquan fill up with bathers in summer, and the Little Qingdao Lighthouse on its offshore island offers the most classic photo view of the city. Laoshan, a sacred Taoist mountain east of the city, rises directly from the sea to 1,133 meters and connects hiking routes through granite cliffs and pine forests with historic monasteries that have been inhabited by Taoist monks for over 2,000 years. The combination of beach, beer, colonial architecture, and mountain scenery makes Qingdao one of China's most versatile travel destinations.