Once again we had a super early morning but luckily our hotel served breakfast early. After the breakfast we headed to Jinan train station to catch our train to Qingdao. Our train ride was smooth and quick: it took about 3 hours. Our plan for the day was to get alive to Qingdao and visit the famous Tsingtao beer museum. We succeeded.

There were greenhouses as far as the eye could see. Because of the pollution you can’t actually see very far.

Our impression of Qingdao was immediately the best of the all cities we had visited. Taxis actually were willing to give a ride to western people. The traffic was smooth and there were not any traffic jams like in Beijing. Still it was pretty chaotic and our taxi almost got hit by a bus. Twice.

Qingdao looked very different than Jinan and Beijing even though it has over 9 million inhabitants. The main reason for this is probably the German influence the city has had in the past. Most of the people outside of China recognize Qingdao from the beer Tsingtao. It is originated from this city and you can its presence everywhere.

Tsingtao museum and brewery was our first destination once we had dropped off our luggage and checked in to our hotel. In the museum we saw the history of over 100-year old beer. Wherever you go in China you cannot escape from the patriotic stories. Tsingtao museum was no exception. Tsingtao beer company was actually the first Chinese company to expand abroad: this happened in 1993.

After the museum tour we HAD to hydrate ourselves with local bagbeer (pussikalja). It is a little bit different than in Finland.

Another pleasant taxi ride and we found ourselves from a rocky beach. The Pacific Ocean hit the shorelines and we continued hydrating ourselves with Tsingtao beer. After the beach session our group separated into smaller groups: some of the crew grabbed a light snack and went to bed, some checked out Qingdao’s nightlife.