Beer Street is totally iconic in Qingdao. It’s home to over 60 bars and beer shops, all with el fresco dining – simply lovely to waste away a lazy afternoon or enjoy a relaxed evening. Every day, beer made fresh in the Qingdao Brewery Factory is sent to the shops, so it’s beer-on-tap all the way, woohoo!

Qingdao is also famous for their seafood – utterly fresh and live just a few minutes before appearing on your table. It was here that we had a seafood and beer lunch extravaganza, ordering way way way more than we could finish 😛 The food was outstanding – so fresh that I can’t actually remember the last time I tasted seafood this good. If you’re not a seafood lover because you don’t like the smell of it, you’ll love the seafood here. It’s not fishy at all, and so expertly cooked that every bit is delicious.We ended up ordering a couple of dishes, ‘cos we couldn’t decide 😛 Thank goodness stuff is cheap in China!

To walk off our mega lunch, we headed to Qingdao Zhan bridge/pier, touted as a tourist hotspot. It certainly is – it was packed! Originally built in 1891 as a naval pier, it’s really just a pier sticking out into the water – nothing too exciting. I guess the sheer amount of people there, plus all the beggars, kind of took away from the experience. The building at the end is Chinese style octagon pavilion, a stark contrast to the European buildings in the background and around Qingdao. It was good to go, just to say that we’ve been, but I probably wouldn’t go back there again!

And then it was back to the hotel where there was a chartered bus taking our group to the airport, and back to Shanghai. It was a lovely 4-day offsite/holiday. Thanks eBay!! 🙂

Guess what street we’re on?

Qingdao – the birth place of beer culture (I assume in China only)

Our restaurant of choice, complete with beer barrels over the doorway

It was another one of those point-and-order restaurants. SCORE!

Boiled clams – the flavour of these were amazing, and I’d thought boiled
clams would be bleh and fish, but nup!! These were delish.

Drunken prawns cooked in white wine and served with spicy soy sauce –
my favourite dish. So so so so so good and super sweet prawns!

Egg fried rice. Plain and steaming hot and a great accompainment

Garlic scallops and vermicelli – these scallops were humongous!! But so
fresh and tender. The garlic was overpowering though, but Chris loved it

Whole BBQ’d fish. I actually found the sauce too strong-tasting but the
meat inside was white and light tasting.

And another jug of Tsingtao beer on tap 😛

*ZONKED*

Qingdao Zhan bridge/pier

A ‘lil ol fisherman casts his net, whilst a billion people look on..

Pretty building at the end of the pier

It got really overcast and cold and windy, so we had to head back.
Just as well, since we had a plane to catch!