About a month into my first stint in China (中国 – zhōng guó), I suffered from a case of itchy feet.  While I had moved here to work, my job was only meant to be a means to an end – to fund my adventures.  My first few weeks in 北京 had been a roller coaster, to say the very least, as I made the decision to leave the company I was with to find my own job and apartment.  In order to celebrate, and to relieve some of the stress that had been acquired in the move, it was time to travel (旅行 – lǚ xíng).  Seeing as how I had just paid rent (租金 – zū jīn) for three months (三个月 – sān gè yuè), plus a deposit (押金 – yā jīn), my wallet was not exactly thick.  With National Day (国庆节 – guó qìng jié) and the ensuing time off fast approaching, I knew I had to act quickly.  Always the thrifty traveler, I searched the internets far and wide until I finally found a cheap plane ticket (便宜的飞机票 – pián yi de fēi jī piào) bound for the coastal city of Qingdao (青岛 – qīng dǎo), the home of China’s most famous (有名 – yǒu míng) beer (啤酒 – pí jiǔ).  It should be noted here that the actual product still bears the outdated Wade-Giles spelling for the city, Tsingtao.  Don’t let this confuse you, as they are one in the same…

As an avid beer drinker, I was excited at the prospect of visiting 青岛.  Once I found out that there would actually be a special event – the Qingdao Beer Festival (青岛啤酒节 – qīng dǎo pí jiǔ jié) – going on at the same time, I was downright thrilled.  Joining me on the trip would be my good friend (好朋友 – hǎo péng yǒu), Tim.  Seeing as how a majority of the three weeks we had known each other had been spent drinking beer, this trip seemed like a logical decision.  Before we could embark on our journey, we did have some work to do, as we had to move (搬家 – bān jiā – lit. move house).  We packed up our worldly possessions, moved them across town to the new digs, and set out with a HOP, skimp and a jump, excited about what was ON TAP for us that weekend.

Now that the history lesson is out of the way, let’s jump back to 2008, shall we?

Seeing as how this was the first time (第一次 – dì yī cì) for both of us traveling in China, it was bound to be an interesting experience no matter what happened.  At the time, our combined level of Chinese was probably as good as a one-year old native speaker.  Wait, no, never mind… I don’t want to sell one-year old Chinese kids short.  We had been relying on friends to get us around and feed us in Beijing, and now we were being thrown out into the wild to fend for ourselves.

Walking around made us both thirsty (渴 – kě), so we decided to make our way to the beer festival.  I’m pretty sure we managed to get ourselves there by entering a cab armed with multiple bottles of Tsingtao and simply pointing to them.  It’s a fair bet that our driver had already escorted a few 老外 to the festival that weekend, and as such, was used to this game of charades.

One thing we quickly realized was that middle-aged Chinese men really, really, really wanted to drink with us.  And they didn’t just want to casually drink with us; they wanted to do irresponsible, American college freshmen binge drinking with us.  We were constantly challenged to race, and were always being encouraged with calls of cheers (干杯 – gān bēi – lit. dry glass).  One man in particular was very adamant about showing off his drinking prowess to us.  It was only a matter of time until he was drunk (喝醉了- hē zuì le), at which point he decided it would be a good idea to get on stage. See for yourself…

This guy was on point.

Thanks to the never ending calls of “干杯!” in that tent, time flew by.  After the sunset (日落 – rì luò), things really started to pick up.  We moved the party from the cheap beer and chaun’r tent to one of the big tents, as we had been informed that the REAL entertainment for the night would soon be starting.  Apparently, people hadn’t spent 30 RMB just to see us make drunken fools of ourselves.

Under the big tent, the party was in full swing.  Beer vendors were working overtime to fill huge mugs, and beer drinkers were working overtime to empty them.  Especially us.  I could count the 老外 in that tent with my fingers alone (although there might have been some double vision going on, so maybe I needed my toes as well), and as such, our company was highly sought after.  Being unable to afford the 90 RMB mugs of German beer myself, you can imagine my excitement at the numerous offers I got from strangers to drink theirs.  Of course, I was expected to 干杯 every time, and I obliged.

The main event under the big tent at the beer festival.

Not knowing any of the words ourselves, we opted to instead jump on stage, much to the dismay of the security guards.  No one else seemed to mind, though, and the group actually seemed quite happy to have acquired some back up dancers.  I’m just impressed none of us fell off the stage…

I trust that by this point in the post, you have a beer in your hand, so 干杯! In case you should find yourself in China next month, this year’s installment of the Qingdao Beer Festival will be running from August 13-28, and more information can be found HERE. I’ll be making my second trip to the Chinese coastal city, so expect some more video highlights next month.