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Dalian beer festival toasts Olympics run-up
By Zhu Chengpei and Zhang Xiaomin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-03 08:49

The 10th China International Beer Festival will be held from July 17 to 28 in Dalian, announced Dai Yulin, vice mayor of Dalian, at a news conference Wednesday.

More than 30 beer manufacturers will bring over 400 beer brands and 300 arts performances to participate in the festival in the coastal city of Northeast China’s Liaoning province.

Large-scale domestic beer companies like China Resources and Yanjing, as well as world-famous foreign producers like Budweiser and San Miguel will be available at the venue.

According to Dai, some companies will give a preview of their limited edition beers for the coming Olympics at the festival. Others will arrange special activities for the visitors to experience Olympic sports.

“Many overseas tour groups from Japan, Germany, South Korea, and the Netherlands have decided to visit Dalian before they go to Beijing for the Olympic Games,” Dai explained.

“We believe this year’s beer festival will attract more visitors than ever to Dalian,” said Dai.

“The delegation from Munich, Germany will attend the festival as usual,” said Dai. “The Large Munich Beer Tent, which is a showcase of Germany, will continue to be one of the most attractive highlights of the festival.”

As China’s only state-level beer festival，it was launched in Beijing in 1999 and was moved to Dalian in 2002. The festival settled permanently in Dalian Xinghai Square, Asia’s largest seaside square since the fourth beer festival.

Last year’s beer festival attracted 2 million tourists and local residents, who sampled a total of 1,800 tons of beer.