We spent our past rest day in the bustling coastal city of Qingdao and, of course, it was also the host of a huge two week long International Beer Festival…How fitting!

Not only that, it was also China’s national holiday week (Golden week) so every hotel was at capacity and the city was absolutely crawling with of people. The shopping centers were packed, all the street vendors had long lines at their booths, the buses were standing room only, every taxi that passed was occupied, you could hardly find an empty table in any of restaurants, and the beer festival saw 180,000 people (polishing off 66 tons of beer) on the first day. The Chinese people were out in force and you could feel the tremendous sense of nationalism in the air.   Interesting contrast to what it must be in the states.

Anyways, we made it to the beer festival where we decided to let loose, see where the night would take us, and simply enjoy this beautiful city.

And where did the night take us? So funny! It led us to a VIP area of the Tsingtao sponsored tent where we shared beers and conversation with the Qingdao chief of police, his deputy, & 18 of his friendliest bodyguards… some of whom were passed out at one of the corner tables.

Next thing you know the entire press corps showed up asking questions, taking pics, and shooting footage of us drinking beer with all the people we had met.

This was all followed up with individual interviews by both the local and national news stations that we were in prime form for.

It was a wild experience and we were able to walk away with over 250 combined pics and hours of video from the event!

It just goes to show that anything can happen in China!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm and is filed under on the road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.