A Beer Festival in China Has German Roots, but No Lederhosen
Locals come to enjoy the "re nao" atmosphere, a Mandarin term for "hustle and bustle" or "loud and chaotic." Qingdao’s festival may be of fairly recent vintage,
but its beer-making tradition goes back more than 100 years.
Inside, the scene was raucous: Performers lip-synced to patriotic Chinese songs, women in skimpy outfits auctioned off traditional Chinese calligraphy,
and more than one man felt the need to remove his shirt.
The city of Qingdao is home to the similarly pronounced Tsingtao Brewery, which was founded
by German settlers in this corner of Shandong Province more than a century ago.
Zhao Chen said that Without beer, we don’t have life in Qingdao,
If the festival looks like a certain German tradition, there’s a good reason.
In 1903, British and German settlers created the Anglo-German Brewing Company and began producing Tsingtao.