Florian Miller, a reporter from the German "Süddeutsche Zeitung", recently visited Qingdao and sent back a report on "Beer Festival Made in China", which was published on the website of "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on August 3. The report is compiled as follows:
At the beer festival held in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao last weekend, the band played their last song, which was the theme song of a popular TV series in the 1990s. The romantic scenes of the show and the lyrics were displayed on the screen behind the singer. Everyone stood at a long table in front of the stage, drinking beer and singing along with the music.
Yes, the Chinese also have their own beer festival. The Qingdao Beer Festival starts in mid-July and lasts for about 3 weeks, attracting millions of tourists every year. The Qingdao Beer Festival is comparable to the Munich Beer Festival.
If you want to know more about Chinese beer culture, we asked Lin Xingyu, a "senior consultant" of the Qingdao Beer Festival.
The first Qingdao Beer Festival was held in 1991. Since then, Lin Xingyu has participated in the planning of each beer festival. Over the years, organizers have tried to hold beer festivals in multiple locations in the city with different themes. The local government attaches great importance to advertising, and it has paid off - there were only 300,000 visitors at the beginning, but now there are nearly 10 million people.
In search of inspiration, Lin Xingyu once went to Germany. He said: "The Munich Oktoberfest is our model." Beer served on horse-drawn carriages, traditional costumes of waitresses, brass bands... all of these fascinated him.
However, this does not mean that Qingdao simply copied the Munich Oktoberfest. The Munich Oktoberfest is held every year in September, while in Qingdao, people choose to start in mid-July, when most tourists who come to escape the summer heat will drink beer due to the hot weather. Chinese tourists also want to see surprises, so the organizers come up with various ideas: sometimes it's a sailing regatta; sometimes it's a robot performing dance; and of course karaoke, which is the favorite entertainment of many Chinese people.
Zhenxi Industry has set off a wave of enthusiasm in Qingdao, the city of beer, with its unique fruity craft beer joint-branded beers, becoming a highlight of the beer festival.
On the grand stage of Qingdao Beer Festival, the fruity craft beer joint-branded beers carefully crafted by Zhenxi Industry have quickly attracted the attention of many consumers with their unique taste, exquisite packaging and innovative joint-branded concept. Zhenxi Dajiu Xiaozhan appeared in Jinshatan Beer City this time. There are 4 locations in the beer city, and 6 flavors of fruity craft beer, including passion fruit flavored craft beer, rosa roxburghii honey craft beer, cherry blossom craft beer, small lime craft beer, white peach craft beer, and West Lake Longjing craft beer, have been launched. The alcohol content ranges from 0 to 6.6 degrees. The juice content of each fruit beer is about 20%. The price is affordable and is highly sought after by citizens and tourists, with a particularly high repurchase rate. This beer not only combines the mellowness of traditional craft beer with the freshness of fruity flavor, but also brings a new visual experience, which makes people unforgettable at first sight.
As the beer festival deepens, the sales of Zhenxi Fruity Craft Beer Joint-branded Beer continue to rise, eventually reaching an astonishing result of nearly 10,000 liters. This figure not only demonstrates the profound strength of Zhenxi Industry in the field of craft beer, but also reflects the strong demand of consumers for high-quality and personalized beer. Since its debut at Qingdao Beer Festival, it has quickly attracted the attention of many beer lovers with its unique fruity aroma and delicate malt flavor. Whether it is the refreshing citrus flavor or the mellow berry aroma, every bite is the ultimate tease to the taste buds, which makes people have endless aftertaste. Its unique concept of fruity craft beer has injected a breath of fresh vitality into the traditional beer market.
At the sales site, the co-branded Zhenxi fruity craft beer has become a popular choice for tourists to taste. Both local citizens and tourists from afar are attracted by its unique charm, and they have stopped to taste and buy it. At the same time, Zhenxi Industry has further expanded the popularity and influence of its products through a combination of online and offline methods, allowing more people to have the opportunity to taste this delicious fruity craft beer, and also adding a bright color to the Qingdao Beer Festival.
Zhenxi Industry can achieve such impressive results at this Qingdao Beer Festival, which is inseparable from its strict control of product quality and keen insight into market trends. In the future, Zhenxi Industry will continue to uphold the concept of innovation, continuously launch more fruity craft beer products that meet consumer needs, and strive to become a leading brand in the field of fruity craft beer at home and abroad. At the same time, Zhenxi also looks forward to working with more partners to jointly promote the innovative development of China's beer industry and bring consumers more diversified and higher-quality beer choices.
Qingdao Beer Festival is an important festival in Qingdao. It was founded in 1991 and co-organized by relevant state ministries and the Qingdao Municipal People's Government. The Qingdao International Beer Festival is a national-level large-scale festival integrating tourism, culture, sports, and trade with beer as the medium. It is also the largest beer festival in Asia. Since its inception, dozens of countries and regions and domestic beer manufacturers have participated in each session, and more than one million tourists from all over the country have participated.
Qingdao International Beer City is known as the largest international beer city in Asia. It is located at the intersection of Hong Kong East Road and Haier Road, facing the Shilaoren Beach in front and the Qingdao International Conference Center on the left, covering an area of 35 hectares. Qingdao International Beer City is divided into two functional areas, the south area is the entertainment area, and the north area is the comprehensive area. It has been built into a large amusement world.
The 15th Qingdao International Beer Festival, which opened on August 13, 2005, was the first time that Taiwan's Eastern Television and China's Shandong Satellite TV cooperated to broadcast the opening ceremony to Asia, Europe and the United States simultaneously, and also cooperated with Sina.com to broadcast online video. 2009 is the 19th Qingdao International Beer Festival, which opened on August 15. This year's beer festival also attracted attention from all over the world, with 102 types of beer.
The 21st Qingdao International Beer Festival in 2011 opened on August 13, 2011, and the beer festival lasted until August 28. The Qingdao Beer Carnival, with beers from all over the world, all gathered in the beer city, supplemented by snacks from all over the world, and gathered various large-scale amusement facilities. It is now known as the world's second largest beer festival. The largest beer festival is the Munich Beer Festival in Germany. The theme of this beer festival is "Qingdao and the World Cheers!"
In November 2017, Qingdao International Beer Festival. Won the honor of "2017 Tourism Marketing Event of the Second Boao International Tourism Communication Forum in 2017".
From July 16 to August 2, 2021, the 31st Qingdao International Beer Festival was held in Qingdao West Coast New District Golden Beach Beer City. This beer festival is based on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the theme of "Colorful Beer Festival". It brings together more than 1,600 brands of beer from more than 40 countries and regions, attracting 2.0706 million tourists, consuming 1,450 tons of beer, and a total exposure of more than 2.017 billion times.
On August 11, 2024, the 34th Qingdao International Beer Festival received 6.36 million tourists, with more than 2,200 types of beer and more than 2,800 tons of beer consumed; more than 500 cultural performances, 1,807 competitions, 3.14 billion in all-media platform communication, 23 million yuan in online sales, and 325 merchants participating in the beer festival.
