Qingdao is an important Port city in China's northeast, sited on China's eastern coast about 1,000 km north of Shanghai, thus being a key player to markets in Korea and Japan. Best known for it's beer, (originally a German / British Joint Venture, established in 1903 and now 100 years old) is also developing as a tourist resort, with some excellent beaches (the number six beach is the best) and surrounded by plenty of Germanic style buildings, and many many bars and beer kellers: the huge Annual Beer Festival is held here every August and attracts thousands from Europe and overseas German Charter planes fly in especially at this time.

La Luna, a nice French restaurant with a nice menu and wine list. Great seafood salad, Foie gras with onion jam, salmon with sesame and red pepper sauce, cheese plate, and a nice dessert. In short, a good place to enjoy fine food in a pleasant atmosphere. From there, you just have to cross the street to Feeling, the place to be in Qingdao.

Hotels include the Shangri-La (0532) 388 3838, the Grand Regency, (588 1818) , the Equatorial (572 1688) and Holiday Inn (571 8888), while those in need of Guinness can stay at the seafront Haitian Hotel (387 1888) with it's popular Irish Pub.

Given it's history of beer it really is not hard to find a bar, but some of note include the Alice Bar, on Dongfang Lu, and the Focus and Cowboy Bars also being popular amongst expats. Donghai Lu also contains a few pubs and interesting Chinese sculptures and arts and crafts shops, while the night market is a lively place for a stroll at Xilingxia Lu.

Being a seaside place the quality of local food and seafood is very high, with some great restaurants along Zhongshan Lu (the Chunhelou Restaurant is reputed to be the best), while there is also a restaurant on top of the TV Tower at Taipingshan Park with great views over the city.

Wine lovers need not look further than the nearby Laoshan Mountains and the Tsingdao Vineyards, who turn out a very acceptable Chardonnay and has been visited (and praised) by the Financial Times wine critic, Jancis Robinson.

More spiritually, Qingdao has some splendid churches, with a double-spired Catholic Church dating from 1891 that still holds services, and two other German built churches, recently restored and now re-opened. A memorial to Sun Yat-sen is located on Wendeng Lu, also close to Qingdao Zoo, and a haven for some peace and tranquility: it's a full on park.

Nearby Mount Laoshan is the source of the sweet waters that go into the local beer, it's also bottled itself and springs up from both the Mountain and under the city: it was long regarded as an elixir of life in China and led in turn to several Taoist temples being erected in it's honor. For more hustle and bustle and bargaining the daily Qingdao market on Jimo Lu attracts more than 200,000 people daily looking for antique furnitures, second-hand bicycles and much more besides, it's worth a good look around.

Qingdao is a great weekend destination as well as being an important trading and light manufacturing center, come along and enjoy yourself in the home of China's beer industry !