A cultural city with special charm

QINGDAO: Walking along the zigzag pavement of Qingdao's seashore, watching sails fly across the top of waves as the seabreeze caresses your face, you cannot help but be intoxicated by the coastal city.

Located at the southern end of Shandong Peninsula and with a history dating back thousands of years, Qingdao is rich in history and culture.

Its range of cosmopolitan offerings continues to expand as cultural exchanges with foreign countries increase in number and scale.

International cultural activities

The sailing competition of the 2008 Olympic Games will double as Qingdao's most important cultural gala.

Various sports and cultural events, like the 2007 Qingdao International Sailing Regatta, International Beer Festival and International Music Festival, all add to Qingdao's charm.

Annual cultural events also include China International Violin Competition - more than 60 internationally renowned musicians have held concerts in the city - and International Fashion Week when 200 famous fashion designers host their fashion shows.

Qingdao enjoys frequent cultural exchanges with dozens of sister cities abroad.

German Culture Week, Korean Cultural Week and Japanese Cultural Week take place one after another.

The International Movie Week, International Fine Art Show and International Folk Square Dancing Show will be held in the following two years.

More than 40 films and TV serials have been shot in Qingdao, which is home to many contemporary Chinese movie stars.

The biennial Golden Phoenix Award, one of China's national movie awards, was held on August 5 this year and involved more than a hundred movie stars.

Stylish architecture

A history of Western occupation has tainted the city's memories, but given Qingdao an impressive array of architecture from more than 20 countries.

A 5km stretch of coastline strewn with villas, castles and churches of European style has developed into the ideal place for couples to take photographs.

Western structures have been preserved well and most are open to tourists.

The Guest House's unmistakable royal European style attracts more than 300,000 tourists every year.

Famous people, such as Gao Fenghan, Kang Youwei, Pu Songling in the Qing Dynasty and Hong Shen and Wen Yiduo in modern times all have sojourned to the culturally rich Qingdao.

Charms from antiquity

As long as 6000 years ago, humans settled here to begin a rich cultural heritage.

Protection sites of cultural relics on or above province level now number 24.

Jimo County, one of Qingdao's satellite cities, was built in the East Zhou Period.

After unifying China, Emperor Qinshihuang visited Langya Tai three times, where Xu Fu led a fleet of more than 6,000 people to Japan and Korea.

Taoism in Laoshan Mountain has exerted great influence since the Tang Dynasty.

(China Daily 08/21/2007 page24)