By Xu Jing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-08-10 09:29

Qingdao International Beer Festival was initiated in 1991, and opens in the second weekend of August each year for 16 days, which is the golden tourism season in Qingdao. It is held by the national relevant ministries and commissions and the People's Government of Qingdao Municipality. It is the large national festival combined with tourism, culture, sports, economy and trade. The theme slogan of the Beer Festival is Qingdao Toasts with the World! After 15 Beer Festivals, Qingdao International Beer Festival has gradually become a bright city name card of Qingdao-the beautiful seaside city, and has well-known reputation and influence in China and the world.

The festival is composed of opening ceremony, beer degustation and drinking, literary evening, literary patrol, amusement, beer-drinking competition, tourism entertainment, economy and trade exhibition, and closure evening etc. During the festival, all the avenues and streets are decorated well and the whole town has the carnival atmosphere. The Beer Town owns land of 500 Mu, and 30 internationally advanced recreation facilities; the visitors drink much beer inside and have great enthusiasm. Each year more than 20 international well-known beer manufacturers and 3 million domestic and abroad tourists participate the festival.

The 16 th Qingdao International Beer Festival will be held in Qingdao International Beer Town from Aug.12 th -Aug.27 th , 2006. This Beer Festival will keep the basic functions, enrich and dig its connotation, will bring stronger dynamic experience and denser festive atmosphere to the tourists. The festival will cooperate with the foreign exhibition merchants, and hold the International Beer Beverage and Brewage Technology Exposition, to exploit the economy and trade negotiation and the exchange function; strengthen the cooperation with German and Korean beer manufacturers and the relevant enterprises; and introduce the real German and Korean beer and the art performances related to beer culture into the Beer Festival. The Festival will orient in the Citizen's Festival and Carnival, and will be the largest Beer Pageant in orient, which the locals participate eagerly and the domestic and abroad tourists canonize ardently.