Home » City specials » Qingdao
Seaside city has climate, sailing and culture to appeal to tourists
By Chen Ye |
March 18, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
The famous water sports city of Qingdao is also one of China's best summer vacation destinations, with unlimited sunshine, soft sandy beaches and beautiful people sunning themselves in swimsuits.
Featuring unique seaside scenery, pleasant climate and rich history, Qingdao has become a tourism haven.
Its international profile had a huge boost during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when, as a co-host city 800 kilometers from the capital, the coastal city was the venue for gold medal sailing events.
"When Beijing granted Qingdao with the rights to be a co-host city for the Games, the potential of building an Olympic sailing regatta won the support of Qingdao government and passionate locals and resulted in economic development," says Lin Zhiwei, chairman of Qingdao National Sports Association.
The city has built on infrastructure gains made by the Olympics and is supporting development of a sailing culture among locals.
"Normal boats can represent the spirit of sailing, so it is not only a luxury activity confined to the rich in large leisure boats," Lin says. "The Qingdao branch of the China Sports Federation has already donated 9 million yuan (US$1.3 million) to buy 1,000 sailing boats, and there are now more than 200 sailing clubs in Qingdao."
Lin says that the development of sailing activity will lead to new sporting trends in the city.
"We plan to make sailing more popular with locals and have set up strategies to encourage competition and training to make it progressively more available."
More than many other cities in China, Qingdao has a centuries-old love affair with beautiful and innovative buildings. And the really charming parts of the city can be found among them, on shuttered, balconied boulevards, winding backstreets, the seaside promenade and avenues of luxuriant trees.
But the attractions are not only in the city.
"One of the best tourism sites in Qingdao is the highest mountain on the coastline of Chinese mainland, Laoshan Mountain, rising 1,133 meters in the southeastern corner of the city," says Lin Hong, director of the Information Office of Qingdao.
Laoshan Mountain is said to be endowed with supernatural qualities, as described by Pu Songling (1640-1715), a famous writer in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
As well as praise heaped on the mountain in Pu's stories, it has inspired other tales and legends.
The mountain harbors many appealing tourism sites: Jufeng (the peak) Dengying Village, Liuqing River, Taiqing Palace, Shangqing Palace, Qipan Stone, Yangkou Beach, Beijiushui and Hualou Mountain. There are also locations for people interested in fortune-telling.
Qingdao has a monsoon climate influenced by its marine location, resulting in moist air with abundant rainfall and four distinctive seasons. It is an ideal destination for spending summer holidays, lying on the beach, getting a suntan and downing a few beers.
After climbing Laoshan Mountain, tourists are prone to spending a night on Beer Street, a popular hangout in summer. Qingdao is home to Tsingtao Beer, and people can visit the Beer Museum and Wine Museum scheduled to open in May.
"The newly established Wine Museum is dedicated to people interested in wine. It is not only a place for people to taste various wines, but also where they can share and learn everything about them," says a Wine Museum spokesman. "With Qingdao government support, we will finish the entire outfitting of the premises and open in May."
Apart from the Wine Museum, Qingdao government has developed a complimentary Wine Street in the past six months so that fans of grape products can consume and buy bottles of it from the many stores set up.
One of the city's annual highlights is the Sugar-coated Hawsticks Festival.
The festival has been conducted since 1990 at Qingdao Haiyun Nunnery and features demonstrations of making the traditional Chinese lollypop, folk handicraft, local cuisine and folk art performances.
The 2005 Sugar-coated Hawsticks Festival won China's Top 10 Folk Festival award, and the 2006 festival was the first entry in Shandong Province's Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Qingdao's history is reflected in the combination of Eastern and Western cultures in its buildings and city design.
There are more than 1,000 buildings constructed by people from various countries, like Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia, and they occupy 244,000 square meters.
They are distinctive structures in a city with strong international flavors.
Featuring unique seaside scenery, pleasant climate and rich history, Qingdao has become a tourism haven.
Its international profile had a huge boost during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when, as a co-host city 800 kilometers from the capital, the coastal city was the venue for gold medal sailing events.
"When Beijing granted Qingdao with the rights to be a co-host city for the Games, the potential of building an Olympic sailing regatta won the support of Qingdao government and passionate locals and resulted in economic development," says Lin Zhiwei, chairman of Qingdao National Sports Association.
The city has built on infrastructure gains made by the Olympics and is supporting development of a sailing culture among locals.
"Normal boats can represent the spirit of sailing, so it is not only a luxury activity confined to the rich in large leisure boats," Lin says. "The Qingdao branch of the China Sports Federation has already donated 9 million yuan (US$1.3 million) to buy 1,000 sailing boats, and there are now more than 200 sailing clubs in Qingdao."
Lin says that the development of sailing activity will lead to new sporting trends in the city.
"We plan to make sailing more popular with locals and have set up strategies to encourage competition and training to make it progressively more available."
More than many other cities in China, Qingdao has a centuries-old love affair with beautiful and innovative buildings. And the really charming parts of the city can be found among them, on shuttered, balconied boulevards, winding backstreets, the seaside promenade and avenues of luxuriant trees.
But the attractions are not only in the city.
"One of the best tourism sites in Qingdao is the highest mountain on the coastline of Chinese mainland, Laoshan Mountain, rising 1,133 meters in the southeastern corner of the city," says Lin Hong, director of the Information Office of Qingdao.
Laoshan Mountain is said to be endowed with supernatural qualities, as described by Pu Songling (1640-1715), a famous writer in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
As well as praise heaped on the mountain in Pu's stories, it has inspired other tales and legends.
The mountain harbors many appealing tourism sites: Jufeng (the peak) Dengying Village, Liuqing River, Taiqing Palace, Shangqing Palace, Qipan Stone, Yangkou Beach, Beijiushui and Hualou Mountain. There are also locations for people interested in fortune-telling.
Qingdao has a monsoon climate influenced by its marine location, resulting in moist air with abundant rainfall and four distinctive seasons. It is an ideal destination for spending summer holidays, lying on the beach, getting a suntan and downing a few beers.
After climbing Laoshan Mountain, tourists are prone to spending a night on Beer Street, a popular hangout in summer. Qingdao is home to Tsingtao Beer, and people can visit the Beer Museum and Wine Museum scheduled to open in May.
"The newly established Wine Museum is dedicated to people interested in wine. It is not only a place for people to taste various wines, but also where they can share and learn everything about them," says a Wine Museum spokesman. "With Qingdao government support, we will finish the entire outfitting of the premises and open in May."
Apart from the Wine Museum, Qingdao government has developed a complimentary Wine Street in the past six months so that fans of grape products can consume and buy bottles of it from the many stores set up.
One of the city's annual highlights is the Sugar-coated Hawsticks Festival.
The festival has been conducted since 1990 at Qingdao Haiyun Nunnery and features demonstrations of making the traditional Chinese lollypop, folk handicraft, local cuisine and folk art performances.
The 2005 Sugar-coated Hawsticks Festival won China's Top 10 Folk Festival award, and the 2006 festival was the first entry in Shandong Province's Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Qingdao's history is reflected in the combination of Eastern and Western cultures in its buildings and city design.
There are more than 1,000 buildings constructed by people from various countries, like Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia, and they occupy 244,000 square meters.
They are distinctive structures in a city with strong international flavors.
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