Published by Swiss James on 19 Aug 2009 at 12:58 pm
Qingdao beer festival
One tip for anyone who goes to Qingdao- don’t bother taking your swimming trunks as 90% of the people in the sea are just wearing whatever baggy Y-fronts they had on that morning.
No-one can really tell the difference (swimming trunks soak up all of the water and turn transparent too right?) and remember that any children under- oh I don’t know eightenn- can go swimming totally naked anyway and it’s cool.
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The beer festival is a great do by the way, and well worth the trip up north. There are beers from around the globe, Bittberger from Germany, Heineken from Holland, Pabst Blue Ribbon from the states- they’ve got the lot.
Everyone puts up a huge beer tent with seating for at least few hundred people, then they have a stage where men who are too fat to be pop singers entertain the crowd before auctioning off a few paintings.
Of course everyone just wants to drink, and the sound of “Gan bei!” (”Down in one!”) rings out across the halls. Strangers call you over to their table to drink and eat plates of horrible snacks with them, people make huge towers from the empty jugs of beer, and by the time you want to get back to the hotel and realise that there are no buses or extra taxis- you’ve had such a great time that you just don’t care.
Two thumbs up. In fact screw it, three.
Qingdao Beer Festival (Aug 15 – Aug 30 2009)
Tsingtao International Beer City
Entrance 20RMB
Children welcome (as long as they don’t mind seeing Mum and Dad wasted)
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First!!
That’s a towering beer jug tower!
So much about Asians being bad drinkers… you’ve got mail.
Fat is in – http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/08/potbellies_are_so_hot_right_no.html
Oi!!! You spelled ‘Bitburger’ wrong! (Drinking that now actually, 15RMB for a big can from the store down the road here in Nanjing, so I KNOW my spelling is right – lulz ftw!)
Was up there myself the last few days.
Glad you posted a few pics, I took a lot myself but managed to lose my camera. Woke up Tuesday morning with no idea how I got back to the hotel, my last memory is being on stage practicing the fine art of gan bei with a horde of people who I believe only understood the word gan bei.
Gah. We’re being represented by PBR? PBR! So many good American beers and it’s PBR that’s here.
Is it because of the photo that the sea water has somewhat yellowish tint to it? Is it a natural seasonal change which happen to coincide with the beer festival?
Look at the bloke on the beach covering himself with wet sand.
‘HiHihi!! Happy, happy!!’
About 70% of the people paddling in the water have no idea how to swim.