Alternative Qingdao with Beer Museum

The Naval Museum in Qingdao is the only military museum in China that fully reflects the development of the Chinese Navy. It has the Little Qingdao Park and the Zhanqiao Pier to its west. The museum covers over 40,000 square meters. It officially opened to the public on October 1, 1989. The museum houses an indoor exhibition hall, a military equipment exhibition area, and a marine exhibition area in the sea. The indoor exhibition hall displays more than 1,200 pictures of Chinese Navy in ancient times and modern times and the history of People's Navy, including their costumes, badges, equipment and more than 230 precious gifts from friendly exchanged between the Chinese Navy and those of other nations. The other two areas mainly display retired small and medium-sized ships, aircraft, missiles, cannons, underwater weapons, observing equipment and amphibious tanks.

Qingdao is regarded by some Chinese as one of the most beautiful and clean cities in China. It has a population of around 3.5 million (8 million regional) and is the largest city in Shandong Province. The name Qingdao means The Blue/Green Island. In 2012, Qingdao was named China's most livable city. While Qingdao has a long history, the eastern half of the city has been built since 1993, and there is no sign of it slowing down. In 2008, it hosted the sailing events of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Qingdao is an ideal destination if you want to combine sea-side fun with your trip to China. Qingdao does not have swarming markets, unpredictable traffic and intense street commerce. The city is relatively clean and orderly and might give the impression of an upcoming wanna-be Singapore.

Qingdao Beer Museum, which lies on the old site of the Tsingtao Brewery Company, which is a world-famous manufacturing enterprise special in brewing. German Beer Company Qingdao Branch established in 1903, China’s first brewing factory that built with European technology was the predecessor of the Tsingtao Brewery Company. At present, the Qingdao Beer Museum owns 55 brewing factories and malt factories in 18 cities and provinces in China. The one-hundred-year old Tsingtao Beer has created its own history and culture.

Qingdao TV Tower is a 232 metres (761 ft) tall lattice television tower with an observation deck situated on the top of 116 metres high Taiping Hill in Julin Hill Park in Qingdao, China. It is the tallest attraction in the city. Construction on the Qingdao TV Tower began in 1993 and was completed in 1996. Architect Renle Ma is known for other tower structures such as the Zhongyuan Tower and the Henan Tower (FU Tower). The steel tower weighs 2000 tons and is home to 11 broadcasting facilities. The tower has a restaurant in a ball-shaped cabinet 130 metres above the ground; under this ball, there is a cylindric cabinet containing a 230 square metres sightseeing platform. In the basement of the tower, there is an Olympic museum, as the 2008 Summer Olympics sailing events took place at Qingdao.

Surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on the other side, the Zhanshan Temple (Zhanshan Si) is situated in the eastern section of Qingdao City. It is the only temple in downtown Qingdao and also the newest one in China. Surrounded by beautiful natural scenery and the vast sea, the scenic area is a superb place for sightseeing in urban Qingdao.

Sitting in the foreground of elegant Taiping Mountain in the east, Zhongshan Park is the largest and oldest park in Qingdao City. It faces the sea in the south and is surrounded by mountains in other three directions. Built in 1901, the park got its present name in 1929 in memory of the provisional president Dr. Sun Yat-sen (or Sun Zhongshan), a great forerunner of the Chinese bourgeois-democratic revolution. Covering an area of 75 hectares (185 acres), Zhongshan Park contains more than 100,000 plants and over 360 species including Kentucky coffee trees, oak trees, medicinal magnolia barks and some foreign species that are rare in China. In addition, there is a magnificent Cherry Blossom Road just opposite the entrance. More than 20,000 cherry trees transplanted from Japan decades ago are growing along the 600-meter-long (1,969-foot-long) road. From mid-April, the vast areas of cherry trees present a splendid view of blooming flowers and are considered one of the ten most spectacular sights of the city. Appreciating the cherry blossoms in Zhongshan Park has become a yearly event for the tourists.